In Memory of the Prince
by RaymondHope
Summary: A story of how the Golden Trio discover who was the real Severus Snape with help from people who knew him. How does everyone feel about the Master Spy now? Everyone has their own set of regrets and cherished memories... "You never knew how much your presence mattered to us. You never knew how important you were. And we never thought to tell you."
1. In the end

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any related works, they belong to J.K Rowling.

**Author's note:** Characters and scenes from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery will be used later on in this story.

"I think he knew."

Harry looked up from the fire he was staring at and turned to Hermione.

"Who are you talking about 'Mione?", Ron asked.

"And what?" Harry added.

"Snape. I think he knew that I had brewed the polyjuice potion in second year. When I turned into that half-cat, Madam Pomfrey called for him. He took one look at me and said that he would have the antidote ready in two hours. Later in the year, when I woke up from my petrification, she remarked that it was the second time that year that Professor Snape had saved my life. I could have died thanks to that polyjuice mishap." She paused and bit her lip looking down at her hands, "I never thanked him for that."

_I never thanked him for saving me from that cursed broom either. _Harry remembered Snape staring at him from the head table at the end of the year. _That was probably proof to him that I was as arrogant as my father was. Of course, he probably didn't need it. _

After a pause Ron remarked, "Wait… when was the second time?"

Hermione looked at him and if he was missing the obvious, like always. "Who do you think brewed the mandrake draught?"

"But Dumbledore only thanked Madam Pomfrey for giving it to everyone and Professor Sprout for breeding the mandrakes!" cried Ron in protest.

Harry on the other hand nearly slapped his forehead in frustration. Snape had practically said that he would he make it when he told Lockhart that he was the Potions Master of the school after they had found Mrs. Norris. But he had never made the connection. _It had been right in front of me, but I never saw it. Now it's too late. _

"You're right about that. Dumbledore never acknowledged Snape for that. Maybe it was part of his cover or something. A loyal Death Eater wouldn't brew potions to save those harmed by Slytherin's heir, right?" Even as she said this, Hermione sounded a bit unconvinced.

"Yeah. Could be." Ron halfheartedly agreed. "Maybe we could ask Dumbledore's portrait the next time we go to Hogwarts?"

"I definitely plan on doing that. I have a lot of questions for him, and not all of them are about Snape."_ Just most of them are._ Harry added to himself.

_Was it really part of his cover or was it something else?_ Dumbledore had been rather stern with Snape while he was giving him orders._ Was he really a git or was that part of his cover too? _Harry felt that the answer to the latter could be a bit of both. _How many other good things did you do that no one knew about? Or rather, ignored just because it was you who did them?_

_"How many have you watched die?"_

_"Lately, only those whom I could not save."_

That had certainly been proven during Snape's trial. Harry could still remember his own and everyone's shock when so many had come forward and told with immense gratitude, the story of a dark haired and dark eyed death eater who had protected them and allowed them to escape with their lives. It was then that Snape's words had made sense. Though he might have claimed and even believed himself to be doing everything in Lily Potter's memory, he did everything he could to save the wizarding world.

That was something Harry wished to ask Snape; if he hated James Potter, why had he called his one-time best friend by his name. _Well, I don't suppose I'll ever know. _

Harry yawned and decided that it was time to go to bed. He got up, wished Ron and Hermione goodnight, and trudged out of the room to the one he and Ron shared at the Burrow. As he climbed the stairs, he wished that Snape had not died. There was so many things he wanted to know and so many issues to work through. Harry was determined to deal with everything that had happened in the war so that he would never make the same mistakes again. Wasn't that the whole point of growing up?

To say that Harry had lost all faith in his ability to judge people would be an understatement. Whenever anyone said something insulting about someone, all he could think about how he had actively degraded Snape, and how wrong he had been.

Snape had been unlikable; he was the living embodiment of bitterness and rage. He had many faults and he did awful things. He made mistakes that had far-reaching consequences that no one could have anticipated. But despite all, he took the blame and responsibility for what he did, he didn't back down in the face of adversary and hopelessness, he selflessly did all that he could to make everything right again. He was also the main reason the war was over and Harry was alive. Dumbledore might have made the plans and Harry might have won the final duel but it was Snape who had set the stage. He had his life to lose and absolutely nothing to gain. In the end of it all, he didn't even get a proper burial because the body had not been found.

Harry didn't know if he could ever forgive Snape for all the insults and hate, but he would remember the good in the man and would try not to be so impulsive in judging another without knowing their tale.

For years, he would carry the regret of never truly knowing the man who protected him from the shadows. As he took of his glasses, and pulled up the blanket, he once again wondered what it would have been like to know the real Severus Snape. He wondered if he was too troubled to be anything but the rude and sarcastic Professor Snape, or was he still like the Prince, the brilliant young boy whom he had met in the pages of an old and battered textbook.


	2. The Apprentice

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any related works, they belong to J.K Rowling.

**Author's note:** All the characters from Carter and crew belong to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. Daniel Carter is my MC from the game. HPHM and I have joint-custody over him.

It was Remus and Nymphadora Lupin's funeral. They were to be buried with Remus's parents Lyall and Hope. The heaven bound metamorphogus had been an Auror, and member of the Order of the Phoenix who had fallen in what was now being called the Battle of Hogwarts, and so would be buried with full state honors. Her mother Andromeda Tonks and son Edward 'Teddy' Lupin survived her. Remus Lupin was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and a known werewolf.

To a certain Harry James Potter, it was one of the many funerals he would attend, but it was special. Remus Lupin had been the last Marauder, a friend of his parents. Nymphadora, who preferred to be called Tonks, had become a good friend. With her cheery nature and amusing antics, she charmed everyone around her. Their son was also Harry's godson. On that note, all Harry could think about was, _I have no idea how to be a godfather. _

On being a godfather, his thoughts spiraled back to Sirius, whom he absolutely did not want to think about. Harry's decision to deal with everything that had happened was turning out to be far more difficult than what he originally thought. Some things were simply too painful to deal with, so he pushed them aside, and thought about less painful things, at least until he was in a better state of mind. _ Was this how Snape felt like? _Severus Snape was one person Harry could safely think about without feeling as if he was going crazy. _Ironic, isn't it? _He thought to himself.

Snape had left him with so many unanswered questions; he had become the ultimate mystery for Harry. Solving that mystery; that is, discovering who the man really was, spending time thinking about him was not only a welcome distraction, it was slowly becoming Harry's method of coping. He could clearly see how Snape had dealt with things in an improper manner. That more than anything gave the impetus to act in a proper manner. Also, whenever Harry got too annoyed while thinking about him, he would let go of his train of thoughts and go spend time with everyone else.

"Who are those guys?" said Ron from his right, thus jarring Harry back to the present.

Harry turned around and looked towards the small group of people who were walking up the aisle. There were two men and three women, who by their looks didn't seem very old.

_Are they friends of Tonks? _

That question was immediately answered as Ron's second oldest brother, Charlie, who had been seated in the row behind them with the rest of the Weasleys, stepped up and greeted them, "Daniel Carter, it's been a long time old friend."

The man who was in the center of the group shook Charlie's hand, and said, "We wouldn't miss Tonks funeral for the world, Charlie" gesturing to the others with him.

The blond girl next to him discreetly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and Harry was struck with the knowledge that he was not the only one who had lost people. That there were people who he didn't know who were mourning for the loss of their loved ones.

_ War doesn't spare anyone. _

Before Harry could contemplate more on this sudden realization, the man named Daniel Carter stepped away from the group along with the blond woman and made his way to Andromeda and Teddy who were seated parallel to Harry in the left aisle. The rest stepped back and took seats in the middle row. Andromeda stood with Teddy in her arms to greet them.

"Daniel, Penny, thank you for coming." She said with a slight tilt to her chin while addressing them.

Penny spoke up, "Mrs. Tonks, Tonks ... eh, Dora, had been my dorm mate and one the best friends I ever had. The least I can do for her is come and honor her today." She looked at Teddy and while gently cupping his cheek said, "And also tell you all sorts of embarrassing stories about your mummy."

Teddy let out a squeal of delight upon hearing that, though whether it was because the toddler actually understood or simply because he could was uncertain.

Penny held out her arms for Teddy, "May I?"

"Of course."

Upon taking, Teddy from Andromeda's arms Penny held him close and turned to face Daniel who had been pensively staring at the graves.

"He looks so much like Tonks, doesn't he Daniel?"

Daniel finally turned to look at them, "I'll never hear Tonks say 'Wotcher, Daniel' again, but perhaps you will adopt the greeting later on?" he softly asked Teddy.

Teddy, who was sporting his usual blue hair, simply smiled at him.

Then Daniel did something Harry never expected him to do – He turned into a bird, a raptor of some kind; Harry wasn't sure about the species. Teddy for his part let out the loudest whoop of laughter he had in days. He animatedly clapped his hands and laughed delightedly as he watched the bird flap its feathers and do loop-de-loops right in front of him.

And just like that, the sun seemed to shine a bit brighter, a cool breeze began to blow and everyone's hearts felt a little lighter. It was rather amazing what a child's laughter had been able to do.

_Maybe getting through all of this won't be so hard after all.  
_

* * *

After the funeral when everyone was milling about and offering condolences, Harry spotted Carter and crew off to the side talking amongst themselves. Call it simple curiosity if you must, but he had the sudden urge to speak to that young man who had claimed to be Tonks' friend.

"I'm going to say hi to those guys over there, want to join me?" he asked Ron and Hermione.

Ron just shrugged, whereas Hermione glanced around to see whom he was referring to, "The animagus?" She looked at him for confirmation and to which he nodded. "Why not?"

Therefore, they set of towards them.

This time Harry decided to observe everything about them, _Observation and awareness of your surroundings are very important skills for an Auror, _Kingsley had said.

Carter was quite tall with dark hair and sharp features that made him look distinctly handsome; he had his arm wrapped around the woman next to him. She – her name was Penny perhaps. – came up to slightly above his shoulder and had long blond hair which was braided down her back. Harry thought that she was rather beautiful.

Of the two other women, one seemed barely older then the trio themselves, and resembled Penny greatly, Harry was willing to bet that they were siblings. The other was red-haired and had an air of authority around her even though the group's leader was clearly Carter.

The last man with them was the stood out a bit; he wore his robes in a different fashion than the others and was dark-skinned with uncombed black hair that fell over his forehead and his glasses. He was also a rather shorter than Carter, probably of average height, Harry supposed.

By now, they had reached them, and the group had stopped their conversation and were looking at them with mild curiosity. This was quite different from the usual reactions the trio got these days, but Harry wasn't about to complain about the lack of fawning.

"Err... Hi, I'm -"

"Harry Potter. Tell us something we don't know." The redhead crossed her arms over her chest and looking rather disapproving.

_Did I do something wrong?_

"Come now Tulip, they haven't started their training yet." Carter gently chided her, "Pleasure to meet you Mr. Potter and Miss Granger." He gave a brief nod to both of them. Before Harry could question why Ron had not been included in the greeting, Carter steeped forward and extended his hand to him.

"Ronald Weasley. Even though we have just met, I feel like I already know you. Charlie used to talk about you all the time in our dorm, right Rowan?"

The bespectacled man, Rowan, steeped up with a smile on his face and chimed, "Oh yes. It was always Ron great at wizard's chess,"

"Ron hates spiders", Carter continued,

"Ron likes the Chudley Cannons,"

"Ron wants to be Quidditch Captain, and well you get the idea." Carter finished with a smile.

Ron flushed as red as his hair, but it wasn't an angry flush. On the contrary, he was very pleased, and he deserved this attention too, for being whom he was, Ronald Weasley, not just 'Harry Potter's sidekick'.

"I think we ought to introduce ourselves, right boys?" Penny then pointed to herself and said, Hello, I'm Penny Haywood and this is my younger sister Beatrice." She briefly put her hand on her sister's shoulder. Pointing to Rowan she said, "That know-it-all bookworm is Professor Rowan Khanna, he teaches at the Stockholm University of Magic." _That explained his different dressing style. _

"You're a teacher at the SUM!" exclaimed Hermione with barely contained excitement while Ron groaned. Harry just shook head, secretly thanking Merlin for the fact that some things never change.

"I'm the youngest Professor on the faculty, I teach Wizarding Traditions and how they lead to our present Laws. Both in England and around the world."

Hermione's face lit up like a Christmas tree, while Rowan looked pleased to have someone interested in his work.

_Coming over to talk with these people is turning out to be quite a good idea._

Clearing her throat, and giving Rowan a mild 'not now' look, Penny continued, "this is Auror Tulip Karasu, the - "

"- person in-charge of training all the new recruits to the corps. A piece of advice to both of you boys, pull up your socks and tighten your belts. I won't be giving you any slack or special treatment because you guys are war-heroes."

"Perfect. We don't want any special treatment. I for one would love to be treated just like the rest." Harry promptly stated in an attempt to pacify his soon to be new boss. He meant it too. He didn't want to waltz his way through everything just because he was the boy-who-lived.

Auror Tulip attempted to give him and Ron and once over, but burst out laughing instead.

The trio looked at each other blankly, while the group smiled and chuckled at the joke they seemed to miss.

"Tonks would have been proud of me for that." Auror Tulip said once she had controlled herself.

"This is exactly what that prankster would have wanted." Daniel remarked.

Tulip turned to them and informed them, "Tonks was my partner in crime back at Hogwarts and partner against crime at the corps. We used to play pranks like these, you know, pretending to be all tough while on the clock. It usually ended with her tripping over or knocking something down and me bursting with laughter. I felt this was the proper way to honor her memory. Although I am serious about not cutting you guys slack." She added the last part as an afterthought.

"Oh, um.. That is fine. You really had us for a moment. So... err... you guys went to Hogwarts with Tonks?"

"Tonks was my dorm mate and Bea's housemate in Hufflepuff. Daniel and Rowan were in Gryffindor with Charlie while Tulip was in Ravenclaw. All of us were quite good friends, there were others too, some couldn't come, and some have already joined Dora." Penny finished with a somber look.

Harry didn't know how he should respond to that, thankfully Hermione stepped up, "We're sorry for your loss. We understand how you feel."

Daniel nodded and said, "There are no winners in a war, only casualties, victims and survivors. Getting through the aftermath is far more difficult than getting through the war. All we can do is learn from what happened and move forward."

_He's right. The ones, who fought and fell, were the casualties, the innocents who were caught in the middle were the victims, and we are the survivors. We have to learn and move forward. _

With that, Harry's resolve to be a better person and help build a better world was strengthened.

"You're a muggle-born, right?" Beatrice asked Hermione. Upon receiving a hesitant nod, she continued, "I think it was really brave of you to stay back and fight. Our mum is muggleborn too, and our dad is a muggle. She had gone through quite a bit in the first war, and You-Know-Who's return with Cedric's death coincided with my NEWTs. She insisted we leave the country immediately and dad gave in. Daniel helped our family hide in America with his relatives and Rowan arranged for my Mastery in Charms over there. Mum only let Penny stay when Professor Snape personally came to us and promised to keep her safe, even at the cost of his own life."

For a moment, Harry felt light-headed. _Snape had promised to keep someone safe at the cost of his own life. Why?_ Another link in the mystery of the man. Harry had to know what had happened, so he asked the first question that came to him, "You knew Snape?"

He was answered with two confused frowns, courtesy the Haywood sisters, one amused smile courtesy Professor Khanna, a tilt of the held that questioned whether he was serious from the Auror, and lastly, from the Animagus he received a raised eyebrow that was eerily similar to the one Snape often gave him. That raised brow removed any lingering doubts.

"All of us had Professor Snape for Potions for seven years. So yes, we did know him." Daniel stressed a bit on his title, thereby conveying to Harry that not only did they know him, but respected him as well. Possibly even liked.

_But none of them were Slytherins, in fact, two, including Daniel himself were in Gryffindor! Everyone knew Snape hated all Gryffindors. Didn't he? _ With a sinking feeling, Harry wondered if it was Snape who started the hatred or the Gryffindors.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to make sense of the whole double-agent thing. It's rather hard to reconcile the man I thought I knew with who he really was. Or rather, who I'm finding he was."

Beatrice smiled at him and squeezed her sisters hand, while Penny answered, "I never believed for a moment that he was evil. I'm glad to know I was right about him." She paused, "Is it true that his body wasn't recovered?"

"Unfortunately, no. Someone set fire to the Shrieking Shack; all that was recovered was a burnt cloak."

Penny looked rather pained at hearing this, and briefly buried her head into Daniel's shoulder. Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, following which he let out the most convincing Snape impression Harry had ever heard, "Miss Haywood, stop this disgusting sentimentality at once." His voice was already deep, and so simple alteration in his tone made him sound similar to the spy.

Harry was surprised that Penny didn't give herself a whiplash with how fast her head snapped up. She promptly scowled at Daniel and lightly thumped his chest with her fist while he chuckled and winked at Harry. It was then that he noticed his eyes. They were a brilliant blue, like sapphires.

"Excuse me, but if you don't mind me asking, why did the professor promise to protect you? You were a Hufflepuff…" he trailed off upon seeing Penny shake her head.

"House had nothing to do with it, Mr. Potter.",

"Call me Harry."

"Alright then. As I was saying, it had nothing to do with my house. I was the best potions student in my year,"

"More like the Potions prodigy," chimed Rowan.

"And as a result," she continued as if she hadn't been interrupted in the first place, "I often went to Professor Snape with questions and various ideas. I had liked him from the first class when he had given his famous first year speech, which had ended in a sarcastic quip. At first, he seemed uninterested in what I was doing, but eventually he realized that I was seriously interested in pursuing a career in potions. He became a mentor of sorts to me. He never called me himself to discuss anything but always opened his door and set aside whatever he was doing whenever I approached him. After Hogwarts, he offered me an apprenticeship. Not only was he my favorite teacher but also a well-respected potions master not to mention the youngest to earn that title. I accepted, this was in the summer of '91. Traditionally, a Potions apprenticeship takes 7-10 years. Mine was rather slow-paced because he was already teaching full-time at Hogwarts along with his Head of House duties" It was clear that Snape had meant a great deal to Penny. She paused and took a deep breath before continuing,

"When Cedric died, mum insisted I leave my Mastery and go with them. Upon finding out about mum's plan, Professor came to our home with me one day, spent nearly two hours convincing my parents to let me stay, and finish my education. She agreed when he promised to keep me safe and away from the field even at the cost of his own person. After that, he arranged for a residence for me at the Potions Guild Residential area, and insisted that I finish my mastery as soon as possible. When I finally completed it, around Halloween of '96 he arranged for a part-time job for me in the Guild's brewing department. My job was to stay inside and brew healing potions for St. Mungo's, and then spend the rest of my time on his research for the wolfsbane potion improvements."

_'91 was when I came to Hogwarts along with Quirrelmort. '96 means my sixth year when Draco was trying to kill Dumbledore but Snape had promised Dumbledore that he would kill him and had given an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa Malfoy for the same… and he was also trying to protect his apprentice whom he had since I had come to Hogwarts… this is all so confusing… how the bloody hell did he manage all this? Oh, I forgot, he was also spying for both sides and was devoted to keeping me safe while I ran headlong into trouble. Wonderful. _

"No wonder he behaved like a git, he had too much going on." Harry muttered under his breath. The others naturally heard him.

"Well…" Penny began looking a bit sheepish, "He was always sarcastic and borderline rude to others at the guild as well, so…" She trailed off. "He was respectful to a few people he seemed to like, though."

_Oh, so he was normally a sarcastic man. What was normal for him anyway?_ Harry felt that the mystery of Severus Snape just kept getting more tangled.

Just as everyone was, processing what had been said, a person walked up to them and informed Daniel that Professor McGonagall wished to speak with him if he had the time. Daniel said his goodbye's to the trio and told his friends that he'd catch up with them later, if they wanted to leave. Before leaving, he asked Ron to convey to his parents that the Weasleys were invited to dinner at his place on a date and time they felt comfortable with. With that, he left. Tulip had to get back to duty so she followed soon after. When Rowan offered to escort the Haywood sisters home, Hermione prompted Ron and Harry to say their goodbyes as well.

* * *

Later that night, while they were discussing what they had learnt today, Ron had a brilliant idea.

"Why don't we go the Potions Guild? If Snape was such a good Potions Master then surely someone at the Guild must know him."

"The Guilds allow visitors on weekdays from noon to three." supplied Hermione.

"You've already done research on this? When?" cried Harry.

Hermione just rolled her eyes and said, "When I was researching career options before our OWLs."

Between sitting and mourning, and going on a wild goose chase, the trio obviously chose the chase.

* * *

**Author's note: Penny's story is from my side. The rest is adapted from HPHM.**


	3. The Hogwarts Staff

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any related works, they belong to J.K Rowling. I do own Daniel Carter, the MC from Hogwarts Mystery Mobile game.

**Author's note:** Characters and scenes from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (RPG Mobile Game) will be used later on in this story.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was seated on one of the student tables and though she was looking over at the head table, it was clear that she was not actually seeing anything. This was the first time in the weeks that followed the battle she was not working or worrying about anything. The castle repairs still had a long way to go, but at least it was no longer in danger of falling apart at the lightest of breeze. She sighed and rested her head in one of her hands. There was still so much to do. The great hall had mostly been repaired though they would need to figure out how to re-charm the ceiling to show the sky outside and replace most of the furniture. The glass cases showing the house points needed replacement. New teachers had to be hired for those who had… the ones who…

_Pull yourself together lass! You've done this once before. You can do it again._

That was the problem, wasn't it? She had been through all of this after the last war, but things had been different. At the end she had mourned so many of her brave young lions- the Prewitt twins, the Potters, the Longbottoms, the McKinnons, her own baby brother Robert Jr., but there were people who were still there to help her move forward. Albus, her mentor and friend had been a great help. Now though, knowing what she did, she could not bring herself to take comfort in his memory.

Before she could begin her mental tirade of question everything he had said and done, and then move on to debating with herself on whether she should blast his portrait or go question it, an owl swooped down and landed near her elbow.

She abandoned her thoughts, if one could call her urges to simultaneously break down and break everything around her thoughts, and took the envelope off its leg. It flew off without waiting for a treat while she broke off the Ministry seal.

_Respected Professor McGonagall_

_This is to inform you that in a unanimous decision, the Board of Governors has appointed you as the Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You shall be succeeding Headmaster Severus Tobias Kalovan Snape as the 148__th__ Head of Hogwarts. _

_We wish you luck for the upcoming years and hope that you shall lead Hogwarts back to its former glory. _

_Best Regards,_

_Solidus Maris  
Chairman  
Board of Governors._

She skimmed over the letter and kept it aside. She was officially the Headmistress. It didn't make any difference to her. She had been leading the school since… _he _had been forced to flee. Of course, now that she was finally able to stop and mull over what had happened, it was painfully clear to her that he had fled _for_ them and not _from_ them. By leaving, he allowed them to get the younger students evacuated and the defenses mounted to hold off the other side.

_You could have wiped the floor with us, and yet you chose to throw yourself out a window._

She had called him a coward. Of all the things, he was, infuriating, caustic, looming and sweeping the halls like a vampire the students accused him of being… he was incredibly brave. She had always known that, from the moment he had jutted out his chin and strode forward to be sorted, he had shown a certain kind of courage. It was not the bold and glorious kind her house was known for, rather it was quite and invisible. The kind that got you through hell and back, day after day, with none the wiser. In the end, that courage allowed him to be the villain so he could help the bold warriors step up and save the world while he stayed in the shadows.

She once again picked up the letter and stared at his name. The name she had called out over twenty-five years ago.

"_Snape, Severus"_

_She purposefully ignored his two middle names just as she always did; some parents simply gave their children too many names. The prime example of that was sitting in far too bright yellow robes at the head table._

_The boy who had stepped forward was slight with stringy black hair falling over his face and a proud aquiline nose he had yet to grow into. His robes were clearly second hand even though they had been taken care of. That was more than what could be said for the boy. She briefly hoped that his condition would improve from here on. _

_As he turned around to sit on the stool, their eyes had met for the briefest of moments leaving Minerva slightly concerned. In those eyes, there had been a certain understanding that should not be in a child so young. As she placed the hat on his head, she was certain the hat would yell out Slytherin any moment. It was not that she did not think he was intelligent or hard working; it was that by the look he had; only Slytherin could provide what he needed. Whether it would be for good or bad only time would tell. _

_There had a brief deliberation between the boy and the hat, and then the verdict came. Into the snake pit it was. Before he went off, he gave a forlorn look to the Gryffindor table where a newly sorted girl gave him a small smile._

Sitting there, she could still see him, small with hunched shoulders, walking towards the Slytherin table with an unmistakable air of pride. It never ceased to amaze her how he could look so pitiable and yet impressive at the same time. Perhaps, his fate had been decided that day.

No. he made his choices. They were initially horrible ones and later on honorable ones. But they were his choices, which he made in circumstances that no man should be in. Could she really blame him for what had happened? If he had lived, she might have been angry with him; she might have even refused to acknowledge his role, or maybe chosen to distance herself from him until she was ready to face the moral conundrum that he had entangled himself in. On the other hand, perhaps, she would have felt ashamed of herself, for not trusting him, as she did now. She might have done all she could to help him and make amends from her end. However, she had no way of knowing; because he was gone and there was not even a body that she could bury to have some sort of closure.

She pushed herself off the table and strode towards the dungeons to convince Horace to stay on for at least a year. The dungeons had been largely unharmed during the battle but the entrance had caved in. Now, they had cleared out the rubble, installed a temporary barricade to hold up the remaining ceiling, and laid out planks to serve as the staircase leading down to it. She cautiously made her way down and proceeded towards the potions classroom. She found Horace arranging the storeroom, looking uncharacteristically subdued.

"Good Morning Horace."

He jolted around quite fast and muttered a greeting. She raised an eyebrow at his odd behavior, but decided not to comment on it for the time being.

"I came to inquire about your future plans, whether you wish to retire again or not." She decided to get straight to the point.

"Umm… well... I... what I mean is that… I've been thinking…" he trailed off.

"Go on. I'm listening." She prodded gently.

He briefly closed his eyes and drew in a fortifying breath, while Minerva braced herself to look for another Potions professor who could also take on as Head of Slytherin.

"Professor Sinistra has bought to my notice that had I been an effective head of house, this Voldemort war might have been prevented, and the last one ended much sooner. She may have a point there. In addition, at the present moment, Slytherin house is in need of strong head who can bring them back on track. I do not think I can handle that Minerva. I will stay on as Potions professor if you want but for the head of Slytherin, I suggest you appoint Aurora. She intends to contest anyway if you appoint me. She said something about regularly assisting Severus and knowing how he ran the house which was what was needed at present." He finished in a quiet voice.

Minerva wanted to comfort Slughorn and scold Aurora for her behavior, but something Horace said had caught her attention. Aurora had blamed him for being able to prevent this war; surely, she would not have placed the blame on one person's shoulders without any good reason? Moreover, hadn't he just conceded that she might have had a point there?

She asked as gently as she could manage, "Horace, I will speak with Professor Sinistra on this matter. But I must know, what did she mean when she said that you could prevented the war?"

Horace sighed and motioned for her to take a seat. Once they were seated, he told her how years ago, a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle had asked him about horcruxes, how he had answered him and then, kept that moment to himself until, sometime before Albus's death, Harry had gotten the truth out if him. He revealed that Albus had always suspected that he knew something, and that he had even questioned him if Tom was truly gone after that Halloween night. With his eyes downcast and voice heavy with regret, he told her that it was for this reason that he left so suddenly in '81.

"A couple of weeks before Albus's death, Severus said the same thing. He refused to speak to me after that. I cannot bring myself to disagree with them. Severus did a spectacular job with the house, much better than I did; if Aurora claims she can do it as well as him, I say we let her. She has grown into a strong willed woman; I do not think she will back down from her stand. Besides, we can always step in if things don't work out."

Minerva simply nodded, and excused herself after reminding him to restock the infirmary and that there was a staff meeting at six. Her mind was racing; Horace had not only known about the Horcruxes, he had been the one who gave that information to Riddle! That little piece of information was the reason they had ended up with a resurrected Dark Lord in the first place. It was obvious, Potter had given the information to Albus, and he must have revealed it to Severus. It also explained why Albus had brought back Horace instead of hiring a new Potions professor when he gave Severus the DADA post. She starting making her way to the Astronomy Tower. At some point, Severus must have told Aurora, and Aurora had decided that Horace was not fit to take care of an entire house. Minerva was not in a hurry to argue with her on the matter; she had always thought Horace to be cavalier regarding the students, though she would have some words regarding her methods of making her opinions known. Horace had proven himself trustworthy and capable of immense bravery in the past year and even more so in the battle, but could he manage to pull Slytherin out of the rut it was stuck in?

* * *

After Minerva left, Horace locked up the storeroom and proceeded towards his chambers, where he promptly poured himself a glass of scotch. After taking a few calming sips, he leaned back his head and remembered the day Severus had called him out on his mistake.

_Horace was making his way back to his chambers from the great hall, when Severus seemingly materialized out of thin air in front of him. _

"_Albus told me something very interesting today." He spoke in barely above a whisper._

"_Oh? And what would that be my boy?" he inquired jovially._

_Severus's nostrils flared upon hearing his response. He stood as still as a statue for a moment then grabbed his collar and shoved him against a wall._

"_How could you not realize what you were doing?" Horace had never heard a more anguished voice, what shocked him even more was that it was Severus speaking in such a manner._

"_You could have prevented this war! Why didn't you say anything earlier?"_

"_Severus, please… I… what…I'm not sure I understand-"_

"_Oh I think you do. You know what you told Tom Riddle when he was still a student and you bloody well know what happened after!" _

_Horace felt all the color drain from his face. He was beginning to find it very hard to breathe, though that could be because of Severus's grip on his neck. He seemed to come to same conclusion because he loosened his grip._

"_You've failed Horace. You had always been a failure as a head of house, but in keeping this knowledge to yourself, you have failed as a person as well. Was your reputation and influence more important than the Wizarding World?"_

_Horace was unable to utter a single word. Not that Severus gave him a chance before he continued._

"_Ten years Slughorn. Ten years. There was an entire decade between his disappearance on that Halloween night and his reemergence the year Potter came to Hogwarts. Albus could have hunted down and destroyed all the Horcruxes in that time. He never would have been reborn, this war would never have happened."_

"_My entire generation was ruined by the war. Especially the Slytherins who were supposed to be under your care. Half of them are dead for Merlin's sake and a quarter rotted in Azkaban for nearly 15 years! You could have saved them, saved all of us. Now this generation, these children, their lives revolve around a War that was begun by their grandfathers and furthered by their fathers. People, whom you taught, people who looked to YOU for guidance. Entire generations have been destroyed Horace." _

_With that, he heaved a great sigh and stepped back. He looked weary, though his eyes burned with an intensity that Horace had rarely seen in anyone. _

"_Severus, I… I couldn't have known what he would become." The excuse sounded feeble to his own ears. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry." It was quite relieving to apologize to someone for what he had done._

_Severus simply shook his head and said, "Albus always says that it can never be too late to correct a mistake. This time, I'm not sure I believe him."_

_A fortnight later, Albus Dumbledore had died by the wand of his most trusted staff member: Severus Snape._

Severus had spun on his heel and stalked off and Horace had hastily beat a retreat to his quarters. He had consumed copious amounts of scotch and had refused to dwell on what Severus had said. Somewhere, in the back of his head, he had realized that there was some truth in his accusations. Horace had not paid attention to students outside his Slug club; he had not deemed them worth the effort. He had been unimpressed by the boy's habit of going against the book and its instructions and resulting in him botching up potions and even melting cauldrons on occasion,. He had thought him practically incompetent, though his theory had been outstanding, and only found out the truth when the OWL examiners for Potions had claimed Severus to be a future revolutionary in the field. In his sixth year, he was invited to the Slug Club, though even then he was not among the star students.

A few years later when Severus had become the youngest Potions Master by completing his apprenticeship in just three years, he had told anyone who would listen that he had taught the brilliant young man for seven years. Severus had let him lay claim over his success and had been nothing but respectful when he had joined the staff as an assistant Professor. Upon Horace's return, Severus had been accommodating and had not even mentioned his abrupt departure from years ago. It had belatedly occurred to Horace that at twenty-one, with just a teaching career of only a few months, Severus had become a full time professor and Head of House just after the end of war that had all but ruined their house. When he had heard about the seven-year winning streak, he had been immensely proud of his former student. Now, his feelings were a mix of pride and regret.

When Tom had said that he had killed Severus three hours ago…Horace had felt conflicted. A part of him was telling him that he should be pleased or relieved that a Death Eater had died, especially Dumbledore's killer, but another part, could only see the intensely burning eyes and hear the anguished voice telling him that he could have prevented this war. When Harry Potter revealed his true loyalties, Horace was simultaneously relieved and filled with joy, and struck with guilt and grief because Severus had joined the dead.

Horace sighed and refilled his glass. He got up and strode over to look at the photographs resting on his mantelpiece. One of them was of Regulas Black. There was a rumor that the boy had tried to defect from the Death Eaters and killed for the same.

Perhaps there was truth to what his two former students had said. Severus and Aurora had been in the same year, and had taught alongside for quite a long time. A twenty-four year old Severus Snape had lead Slytherin house to victory for the House Cup for seven long years. From what he had heard, it had been Harry who had been largely responsible for turning the tables in recent years. If Aurora could recreate that winning streak and give Slytherin a reason to be proud, then why not let her. Perhaps it was time for Slughorn to hang up his boots and remove himself from these matters.

* * *

Aurora had been awake for almost three hours. It was quite unusual for her to even be awake before noon, but here she was, not only wide awake, but also lying in her bed completely unwilling to move. The rational part of her mind was telling her that she ought to get up and do something lest she go mad with grief. The other part was lost in an ongoing loop.

_Septima is dead. Charity has been for months and Severus…_

Septima had fallen in the first part of the battle. The Arithmancy professor though good in casting magic, lacked speed and precision for a duel. She had asked Aurora to promise that she would get through the battle alive and had then died herself. She had sacrificed herself for someone else, a student, chosen her own death in exchange for someone's life. Her death was painful and had taken a small part of her, but she could accept it. She had fallen in battle, by her own choice. Aurora could not stop the onslaught of grief and the filling of her eyes at the mere thought of it, but she would get over it. Eventually the pain would lesson, and she would be able to recall her memory with a smile. She had visited her grave the previous day, and as she had placed flowers on it and walked away, it felt as if she was walking away from a chapter of her life as well.

Charity had disappeared soon after her article on the dying out pureblood population was published in the daily prophet. Minerva had the Order members search everywhere they could for her, but there had been no sign of her. Several weeks later, when school had reopened, the Carrow siblings had mocked her and narrated how she had been captured, tortured, humiliated and ultimately killed with her body becoming Nagini's dinner. It was horrifying to know this was what had happened to her. It was than not knowing though. Now when Aurora thought about it, she felt sorrow, but the pain had faded. After all, it was not surprising that Voldemort had someone killed for expressing dissenting views.

Severus _had_ warned them all against it at the very beginning.

She had avoided thinking about him since she had heard Voldemort's declaration of his death, and Potter's revelation of his true loyalties, and focused on her remaining best friend Septima's death. Now that she had finally visited her grave (she would have gone to the funeral as well, but was in St. Mungo's at the time), as much as she tried, her thoughts kept slipping back to him.

She had loved him. Moreover, she was certain, at some point, he had loved her too.

"_You're mental Borealis."_

"_If you say so Dungeon Bat."_

_A pause._

"_Why though?"_

"_I should be asking that. Why?"_

_She huffed and propped herself up on her elbow to look at him. "Why what Severus?"_

_He continued to stare at her bedroom ceiling, a depiction of the twelve zodiac constellations, let out a tired sigh and answered, "Why do love me? You shouldn't."_

_She rolled her eyes; did they not have this conversation a few days ago? _

"_First of all, you do not have the right to tell me what I should or should not do." She made sure to say that as sternly as she could, to make sure he understood. "Second," she continued much softly, "I love you because you're you."_

"_That is exactly why you shouldn't." he said it in such a matter of fact way that it reminded her that no one had ever bothered to dissuade him from the notion that he was unlovable and worthless. This particular knowledge never failed to anger her._

"_Wrong. That is exactly why I should." Then she kissed him before he could argue. _

_They lay there for a long time, her head resting in the crook of his neck with her hand tracing constellations on his chest and he with one arm wrapped around her and the other lying across his midsection. Eventually, she began to drift off, the hand on his chest slowing its movements. Just before she fell into a deep slumber, he gently lifted her hand off his chest, kissed it tenderly, and murmured in her ear, "I too, am in love. Sleep well Borealis." He fleetingly brushed his lips near her temple and gently squeezed the hand he was holding._

_Then, the arm around her slid off, his shoulder was replaced by a pillow and the warm body next to her was gone leaving an emptiness that was beyond physical. _

She closed her eyes and extended her hand towards the left side of the bed, wanting to know he was there. He was not. He would never be there again. She wiped away the tears that come once again uninvited and unwanted.

For the past year, while everyone had believed that he had been fooling them all this time, she had held the belief that something had happened, something that had broken something inside of him, and that had made him embrace darkness once more. She could not bring herself to believe that he had always been evil. After all, she had held him after he was done reporting to both his masters for the day, had seen him come close to falling apart so many times only to take a deep breath and get up to do their bidding once more. She had seen how every death he watched, and how every curse he took for the sake of his cover, and every crime he assisted in or even witnessed, killed him bit by bit.

Potter's revelation had shocked her to the core, not because of his love and loyalty for an old friend, but because he had knowingly destroyed the life, he had built for himself to help save the wizarding world. The entire year leading up to Dumbledore's death, in their private moments, he had the look of a man who was waiting for death. He never voiced it, but it was obvious that he was convinced that it was a matter of when and not if. Now she knew why. In reality, he had signed his own death warrant, and executed it himself as well, at the place where she had confessed her love to him, where she had tried to distract him from the harsh reality of war by sharing hopes and dreams for a future they might not have. That night at the Astronomy Tower, _her tower,_ he summoned death, and tore down his own little world, in the hope that everyone else's might be saved.

How he had brought himself to do it, she could not fathom. Perhaps she had misunderstood his words. Maybe he hadn't loved her after all. But what of the last time she had spoken to him?

"Aurora dear, the Headmistress is coming up the tower presently. I believe she wishes to speak with you." Came a soft whisper that belonged to the Bloody Baron. He had probably floated into in her sitting room, he knew better than to enter her bedroom.

Aurora shoved her thoughts into a dark closet to be brought out later, wiped her eyes once more, pushed herself off her bed and decided to get dressed, "Thank you for informing me Baron." _Either she wants to discuss the repairs of the tower, or she has spoken to Slughorn and is now coming to yell at me. _Minerva could yell at her all she wanted; she was not backing down.

* * *

Minerva briefly stopped at the landing to catch her breath. It would not do to look like an old asthmatic woman while she spoke to the latest contender for the Slytherin Head of House. Aurora was a fine example of a resourceful, cunning and determined Slytherin. She was impartial, had over a decade of teaching experience, and was sensible and understanding to the plight of others. There was only one thing that was making Minerva hesitate- while she was unsure of the details or the extent, she was certain that the relation between Severus and Aurora went beyond a simple friendship between colleagues. The Staff Christmas Party of '88 had proven it to her.

_Their defense professor that year, Gerald Scott, was a muggleborn who had lost his parents and wife and child in the war. He hated the Dark Arts with passion and distrusted Severus just as much. He never lost an opportunity to taunt him, and Severus, so very defensive at the slightest of indignities, never failed to rise to the bait. That night had been no different. She and Severus were discussing the current disasters who masqueraded as students in their respective classes, when a snide comment came to Severus's remark of wanting to tear his hair out, "It must be quite frustrating, not being able to use an unforgivable on them."_

_Severus ground his teeth so hard, Minerva had to wonder if he cracked any of them. "I was not speaking to you Professor Scott."_

"_So you do not deny wanting to curse them?"_

"_That is enough Professor Scott!"_

_While she berated that annoying man, Severus quietly slipped past her and headed to the door. Minerva caught him exiting out of the corner of her eye. Once Scott acknowledged that 'perhaps now was not the time to discuss anything with his younger colleague', Minerva stepped out to go find Severus._

_She found him leaning against the wall near the grand staircase with his arms crossed across his chest, and standing in front of him, with her hand resting on his crossed arms, was Aurora Sinistra. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but something in the way they stood compelled her to stay out of sight. _

_Severus was looking at Aurora with a barely perceptible softness in his face; there was a tinge of melancholy in hers. She seemed to be comforting him, and he was letting her. She raised her other hand and tucked his hair behind his ear. He stood still, but it was not a statue-like stillness he presented when he was hiding his reactions; it was a relaxed kind, like what had happened, was such a normal occurrence that he had no need to pay any attention to it. Her hand lingered on his face; he did not brush it away._

_She turned around and headed back to the party. She felt that she was intruding upon a very private and vulnerable moment between them even though they had seemed unaware of it. She priding herself on finally being able to forge a friendship with Severus, yet she had never witnessed him so at ease at any time, even as a student; also, she was certain that Aurora was halfway across the room with Professor Vector when Scott had come up to them. _

The only possible explanation for what she had witnessed was that Aurora had seen Severus leave, had promptly followed him, and he had revealed what happened. She had been curious as to the exact relationship between them, but had chosen not to pry though she did snoop around a bit. She had found no proof, but several times, she had seen them glace at each other, when the other was not looking, with a look vaguely resembling fondness. She had kept her findings to herself, away from Albus who was not entirely approving of romantic relationships between the staff members. Heaven forbid the Board ever found out.

After a few moments, she knocked at the door leading to Professor Sinistra's personal chambers. The door opened almost immediately to reveal the young professor.

"Do come in Headmistress." She stepped aside and gestured to her sitting room.

"Call me Minerva, dear. I am not fond of that particular title." It seemed to grate on her nerves when she heard it.

Aurora nodded and shut the door. Once they were seated on the sofa, Minerva ordered some tea and biscuits, and then looked over to her companion. She had not paid her staff the due attention since, well, the battle actually, instead giving all her attention to the dead and the quite literally falling apart castle. She recalled the now deceased Professor Vector being close friends with Aurora.

"There are some matters I wish to discuss, dear, but before that I wish to know how you have been doing these past days."

Aurora opened her mouth, and then closed it. She tried again, but bit her lip and looked away instead.

Minerva could see her trying desperately to hold in her tears, she shifted closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Holding in your grief will do no one any good, I'm here, let it out."

Apparently, that was all it took to reduce the self-assured and confident young women to a weeping mess. Then again, they _had_ just survived a war. Minerva let the motherly instincts she possessed take over and held the astronomy expert close until her tears dried up. Aurora lay in her lap as her breathing began to even out, while Minerva gently stroked her hair.

Just when Minerva became certain that Aurora had fallen asleep, the witch in question straightened up and announced, "I am ready for you to start yelling at me."

_Wait… what?_

"I beg your pardon?"

Seeing her confused expression, Aurora seemed to hesitate looking remarkably like a first year caught out of bed wondering if they should confess to their crime or not. "Have you spoken with Slughorn?"

_Ah, yes. Best to get straight to the point._

"Indeed I have. He told me what you had said to him and the reasons behind it as well. Am I correct in assuming that Severus had informed you of Horace's mistake?"

Now the determined Slytherin witch as back. "It was more than just a mistake. Severus…" she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, "Severus nearly fell apart when Dumbledore told him. Surely you must realize what I said to him is true? This whole war would never have happened! Septima and Charity would still be alive and Severus…Severus would not have suffered as he did. He would be here." She looked away.

_Now for the moment of truth…_

"You loved him."

A bitter smile accompanied the response, "Why ask questions you already know the answers to?"

"Is that why you wish to be the Head of Slytherin? Because he was?" This was what had worried Minerva; that Aurora wished to be Head of Slytherin to feel closer to Severus. With him gone, memories of what he was and how he had been were all that remained.

Aurora shook her head, "No. I mean, yes. But that is not all there is to it."

Minerva tilted her head signaling the witch in front of her to elaborate.

"It's what he would have done. But since he isn't here anymore, I want to do it in his place." She looked away to see something visible only to her eyes, "The summer before the year we had Umbridge on staff, we were just lying on the observatory floor and talking about how everything would be different now. He seemed rather depressed, so I tried to distract him. I started talking about how our lives would be after the war. I said that we could get married and leave Hogwarts, he was aghast at the mere idea. He said that after the war, there was no chance in hell that Slytherin's situation would be any better than it was the last time. He said that no one would give a thought to them if he left, that they needed guidance and someone to be firmly in their corner in the face of the entire stigma they would have to face from the moment of their sorting. I asked him if the house was the only reason that would hold him back at Hogwarts, that was when he revealed, that despite all the awful memories he had here, it was the only home he had ever known." Aurora finally turned to look at her, "The years before Potter came to Hogwarts were the best years of his life. Particularly the later years with his favorite Miss Haywood and her friends Carter and crew causing trouble all the time. He even enjoyed teaching at that time."

Minerva was quietly contemplative for a moment. She leaned back her seat and levelled Aurora with a firm look, "Hogwarts was Severus's home, but Severus is no longer among us. Where is your home Aurora?" she already knew the answer, she wanted to hear it said aloud. She also internally winced at her tone, but sometimes, tough love was a necessity.

Aurora raised her chin and looked at her with the characteristic Slytherin haughtiness that dared anyone to contradict them. "I'll be honest, I never felt at home here as a student and he did not quite like it either, but as a professor I found my domain in this tower and he in those dank dungeons of his. I found home, only with him. If Hogwarts was his home, then it is mine as well."

So, Aurora would stay and do everything Severus would have done because she loved him. It always came down to love.

"You claimed you were aware of how he handled the house-"

"I often helped him out with the 'over-emotional students', especially the girls; he made sure I knew every detail of the way he worked. I can do it."

"There is a staff meeting in the Great Hall at six, following which we shall have dinner together. I will announce my decision then. I also do not want you behaving in such a manner. You _will _show proper respect and courtesy to staff members Aurora."

"Yes, ma'am." For the time being Minerva decided to ignore how empty those words sounded. She would deal with it later.

They talked a bit on how they ought to proceed with the repairs of the Astronomy tower, if she wanted any improvements, what the budget for it was. Then they moved on to how Aurora should start taking better care of herself (she looked like death warmed over, no pun intended), and Minerva should stop being too motherly (it did not suit her).

Minerva soon took her leave and went to find Filius to convince him to take on the role of Deputy Headmaster. This was too much to handle on her own.

* * *

Filius Flitwick was standing in what were the remains of his office. The outside wall with the bay windows had been torn down by … the reductor curse perhaps… it did not matter now.

As the Charms Master of the school, he was given the responsibility of identifying the areas that were damaged by dark magic so that an expert curse-breaker could be called for them. Residual magic had the potential to cause significant harm if not dealt with in the proper manner. After spending a week on bedrest for his injuries, Filius had gotten to work. Anything to distract him from the depressing air that lingered. He could swear that the dementers continued presence throughout the last year had imbibed the castle walls with despondency. Was that even possible? Perhaps Severus would have an idea…but it would have died with him.

Filius heaved a sigh and settled himself on a pile of rubble to the side. He looked out towards the castle grounds and lake, and let his thoughts drift to another brilliant student who was lost in the war.

Sixteen years of teaching alongside him, seventeen if you wanted to count the last year and seven years of being his teacher. Overall, Filius had been around Severus for over two-thirds of the Slytherin's life. Filius had been privy to almost his entire adult life. For all his being the intelligent and observant head of Ravenclaw, he had failed to see what had been in front of him for years.

"_You'll do no more murder at Hogwarts!"_

He had never done any murder at Hogwarts. He had prevented it. Moreover, he had become the most hated man, even more than Voldemort, because of it.

Now that the truth was out, hindsight had reared its wise head and shown him all the clues he should have noticed the first time around had he bothered to look, with blinding clarity.

The portraits running off every time the Carrows started cursing students and Severus arriving within moments. Him assigning detention with Hagrid to the members of Dumbledore's army. His staunch dismissal of there being a secret room the students were hiding in _despite_ him being aware of the existence of the room of requirement (the staff used it for dueling practice during holidays). The gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office giving him access. His weekly password for the students changing from one potion ingredient to another but the emergency password remaining 'Dumbledore' throughout. Most importantly, Severus stunning him and telling Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood to remain with him, away from the battle.

A long time ago, in his reckless youth, Filius had caused his opponent to lose his wand arm in a duel. Since then, he had a perpetual fear of causing irreparable harm or even death, in a duel. Severus had known this. He had known that Filius would rather defend and disarm than maim or kill even against the Death Eaters. Therefore, he stunned him and kept him away from the fray.

As Severus's teacher, he had often noticed the Marauders teasing him and at times even witnessed the boys exchanging hexes. He had given all the boys detention, and later in private, some dueling tips to Severus seeing as it was often four against one. He had not closely followed the situation, he was not their Head of House, and as long as nothing happened in front of him, he was not obligated to act. Perhaps things would have been different if he had. Some years later when Severus had joined as a professor, he had offered help in formulating lesson plans and the like. Even then, they had remained cordial but distant. At some point, Filius was telling his colleagues about the latest research paper on spell creation when he left his copy of the paper in the staffroom. It was delivered to him by a house-elf later in the evening, covered in notes written in a cramped spiky hand. It had led to several discussions on magical theory, those discussions eventually losing their stiffness and becoming casual exchanges, which later formed the base of a friendship built of mutual respect with a dash of fondness. The fact that they were the male house heads never came into play; despite belonging to rival houses, Minerva and Severus were the good cop/bad cop team who stayed up front and led, while he and Pomona handled ground matters and cleaned up.

Filius was shaken out of his fond reminisces, by a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened to reveal Minerva who greeted him with a tired smile, "Hello Filius."

He stood up to greet her, "Ah, Minerva. Just the person I was thinking of."

She raised an eyebrow, amused, "Oh?"

"I was recalling the wonderful moments we four spent together." There was no need to specify whom he was referring to. Minerva's smile faded upon hearing his response. She did not speak until she had settled herself on a chair transfigured from some loose stones.

"I miss him." She did not need to say whom. He understood.

"I'm not surprised. For all your arguments with him, you two were always side by side."

She sighed, and then changed the topic. "I have a request to make of you."

"Yes?"

"I want you to take the position of Deputy Headmaster."

This was exactly what Filius wanted to avoid. He disliked all the extra administrative duties that came with that position. It was due to his dislike, that despite him being the senior teacher, Minerva was made the Deputy. Head of House was fine for him; he loved interacting and teaching the wonders of magic to children. Settling them in and taking care of their needs was not very difficult when yours was a house of intellectuals. For a moment, Luna Lovegood and Marietta Edgecombe's faces flashed in his mind. He shook his head. Severus had often pointed out the Lovegood girl as being an 'interesting' person.

"My answer would depend on how you wish to run the school."

Whatever response Minerva was expecting, that had not been it. She blinked. He continued, "It would depend on whether you wish to run the school in the same manner it has always been run or do you want to change certain things."

She understood what he was hinting at. Had they been more vigilant, more involved with their students, several lives could have been saved, directly and indirectly. The same discussion had cropped up after the first war but Albus had dismissed their concerns, out of tiredness from a long-drawn out war, and unshakable trust in Albus, they had dropped the matter.

"I am not like Dumbledore, Filius. It is high time we straighten out how this school functions and improve things for everyone." Filius absently noted the use of the man's surname and not his first name, Albus, like usual.

He nodded, "Instead of an additional position belonging a Head of House, I suggest we make it a separate one given to another member of the staff. It would save one Head from having extra load, and the deputy would be able function without worrying about their house. After things settle of course. That reminds me, have you been to the office yet? The Board must have sent you a formal letter by now."

"They have. Received it this morning in fact. I will go the office some time later this week. I need to clean it out first." She paused, "Your idea does hold merit, but for now, I would like you to take it alone, though you may take Pomona's assistance should you need it and she be agreeable to it."

He nodded, "Very well." He stepped away to pick up one his books that was lying on the remains of the carpet. It was a photo album.

"Feel free to ask for assistance in cleaning out the Head's office and personal chambers. I will make myself available." He said while flipping through the album. He quickly found the photograph he was looking for. He handed the book to Minerva without saying a word. He did not have to. She took it and upon seeing the photograph, softly smiled. She ran her fingertips over it almost lovingly and her eyes shone with something akin to pride.

The photograph was from the year 1985, just after the Leaving Feast for the '84-85 school year. Filius was standing in the center on a stool. Minerva and Pomona were slightly behind him, to his right and left respectively, and standing in the center, just behind him, firmly held in place by Minerva, was Severus.

* * *

She remembered the day that photograph had been taken. It had been torture, getting Severus to agree to it. In the end, she had given in and had just dragged him to it whether he liked it or not. He had grumbled, a lot, but had let her do as she pleased. She realized he had often done that whenever she told him to something- grumbled and complained- at Christmas parties, staff meetings, during patrols, even while just sitting and grading papers, and more often than not, it was just for the sake of it. She looked closely at them, the four House Heads standing proudly together. While they looked almost the same, Severus looked significantly younger. He could not have been more than twenty-five at the time. Baring the rare Defense Professor, he had always been the youngest one among them; even Aurora was older to him by nearly six months. This was the year when the older students who had been at school with Severus had finally graduated allowing him to take charge of his own house unopposed. It was the year that Slytherin began its winning streak. The year when Severus removed all doubts and proved himself worthy of everyone's respect. The year when Minerva stopped seeing him as a young boy who needed as much as supervision as the students, and instead saw him as a reliable colleague and friend. The year she had felt inexplicably proud of how far along he had come. Moreover, he had known it. How else would you explain the self-satisfied smirk he sported?

"Those years of peace we had were quite pleasant, don't you think?" she had momentarily forgotten that Filius was still in the room; or rather, she was still in his room.

"I think you don't remember the havoc the graduating batch of summer '91 caused with their quest to seal the cursed vaults."

Filius let out a small chuckle, "No, not at all. I remember them quite well, if you remember Miss Karasu, Miss Ali, and Mister Winger were in my house."

"And if you remember, the leader of that odd disjointed group of friends, Carter was in mine."

"Oh that lot was one the best. Who would have thought that Carter's obsession with finding his missing brother would somehow lead to the students from the four houses to forge lifelong friendships? It's a pity it didn't extend to other years as well."

She nodded. Only now was it occurring to her that these past years, ever since Harry Potter had started, had been one disaster after another. The boy was certainly not to blame for it, trouble followed him like moths to a flame; of course, it did not help matters that he was always the first to jump headlong into battles he should not even be fighting, but then, young boys were often like that. She only hoped that he would grow out of it unlike his father. Facing Voldemort without a wand to buy time for his wife and son to escape was immensely brave of James, but not keeping his wand on him at all-times had been careless as well.

"That reminds me, when is Bill Weasley coming?"

She looked up in confusion at Filius, "Why Mr. Weasley would be coming?"

Filius blinked in confusion, "Is he not the curse breaker you called to get rid of all the dark magic traces?"

Minerva smiled like a Cheshire cat and answered, "Oh no. I have given that task to our new DADA instructor. And yes, the person I have hired is competent. Even Severus would agree." That was the ultimate measure of worth among the staff. If Severus found something or someone acceptable, it meant that it or she/he was brilliant.

Filius smiled a rather sad smile and extended his hand for the album she had holding onto the whole time. While handing it over, she glanced at it again, and realized with some embarrassment that none of them had changed their attire over the years. She lightheartedly mentioned the same to Filius.

He on the other hand looked at her, then back at the photograph with a troubled expression, and murmured, "Another clue…"

_What? _

He abruptly looked at her and said, "He dressed the same throughout. Not once did he flaunt his mark or even hang his mask from his belt like the Carrows. Just like his password, it was a hint to us. We never noticed."

Severus. Minerva had noticed that Severus stuck to his usual teaching robes rather than the Death Eater garb the Carrows preferred. It served to remind her that he was once the boy she had taken under her wing, and trained into a competent professor, whether he liked it or not. She had hated it and had wished that he would dress as the Death Eater he was. Why would he have done so though? He had never been one of them.

With that knowledge, another horrible thought occurred to Minerva, one that she could not bear to think of. Not here. Not right now.

"Do not delude yourself Filius. We had noticed his clues, but had chosen to ignore them; instead believing that the man we knew was a farce." It was quite deplorable, choosing to believe one moment of lie above sixteen years of truth. However, the lie had been enormous, killing the one person everyone trusted above all else. _Were you even worthy of that trust Albus? _

She refused to discuss any further on this topic and questioned Filius on the status of the residual magic from the battle. After reminding him that there was a staff meeting at six, she left and went to have lunch. After all, it was late afternoon and she was starting to feel light headed. It would not do to end up in the hospital wing when there was so much work.

* * *

**Author's note:** This was part of a much longer chapter, but I split it in two. The next part will be posted soon. Please review ;)


	4. The Staff Meeting

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any related works, they belong to J.K Rowling. I do own Daniel Carter, my MC from Hogwarts Mystery Mobile game.

**Author's note:** Characters and scenes from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (RPG Mobile Game) will be used later on in this story.

Daniel Carter arrived at Hogwarts quite late in the afternoon. He would have been there sooner but he had instead gone to visit Penny at the Guild. Turned out, another trio had gotten the same idea, albeit for different reasons. Harry had been eager to hear about Professor Snape, unfortunately for him, Penny had been unwilling to share too many things. Firstly, because they were personal and she had felt odd about sharing her cherished memories of her mentor with someone she barely knew, and second, well, it just hurt her too much. Daniel had intervened before any tempers broke, and instead questioned Harry on whether he was paying the same respect to others he did not know who had died in the war. Like some of his own classmates, Talbot Winger, Andre Egwu, Barnaby Lee, Badea Ali and so many others. It had led to a long discussion that ended with him once again reminding them that they (and the rest of the Weasley clan) were invited to dinner/lunch whenever they chose at his house. He was great friends with Bill and Charlie after all.

He walked up to the gates where he was greeted by Hagrid and a now grown up Fang. After exchanging a few greetings, he waved off Hagrid's offer of escorting him joking that he still knew how to find his way.

As he walked towards the ruins (there was no other way to describe them), he felt a deep sorrow. So many of his friends had died in this war. He had been too young during the first one to remember anything, but from what he had heard it was even worse than this one, not to mention longer, his heart went out in sympathy for those who had suffered and lost loved ones in both.

As he passed by the lake, he spotted Dumbledore's tomb. On a whim, he strode towards it to pay his respects to his old Headmaster. As he stood in front of the tomb, he thought back to all the times Dumbledore could have told him the truth about Jacob, but had instead chosen to call him to his office, make him wait, and then give him advice he still did not understand in the form of ridiculous riddles. By the culmination of his schooling, Daniel ended up with a dead brother, betrayed by the woman who was supposed to train him as a curse-breaker, and feeling as if his entire life was a waste.

That was when his friends had stepped in. It was strange really; he was great friends with almost half the people in his year and most of them did not get along with each other, but they had each tried to help him in their own way. At first, when he had been in the hospital wing he had refused to see anyone and had gone so far as to threaten them with hexes when they did not agree.

That was when Professor Snape had knocked some sense into him.

_He was sitting propped up by pillows in a corner bed that curtained off from the rest of the Hospital Wing. He did not want to speak with anyone, could they not understand that he wanted to be left alone. _

_Suddenly the curtains were pushed aside; he opened his mouth to snap at whomever had shown up this time when he saw that it was Professor Snape. Considering the fact that this was the man who was in charge of his medical care, and that it was still late January, he shut his mouth before he was slapped with detentions lasting until graduation. Assuming the Ministry did not arrest him first and/or expel him. _

"_Hello Professor." He bit out in the most respectful tone that he could. _

_As always, the potions master did not acknowledge his greeting with a verbal response and instead proceeded to cast diagnostic charms on him. Apparently, Dark Magic lingered for quite long. In midst of his task he off handedly remarked, "Your companion, Mr. Khanna has refused to move from outside the infirmary since morning. Seeing as it's a Sunday, no one has a valid reason to send him away as long he does not create any trouble."_

"_Why don't you just threaten him with detention?" he mocked. The manners his parents had ingrained in him were telling him that he should not behave like this, but he did not care anymore._

"_I cannot give detention for quietly sitting on the bench outside the infirmary. He is aware of that."_

_Daniel could not control himself any longer. He did not care that he was in the presence of the harshest professor of Hogwarts. He burst out, "What is wrong with him? With all of them? I have threatened to curse them, but they still… especially Penny and Rowan! I had pointed my wand at Rowan's throat."_

_The Professor was unaffected by his outburst, instead he seemed more concerned with the bandaged cut on his thigh. _

"_Life is not fair, Carter. You have lost some, but you still have some left. Nevertheless, here you are whining like a spoilt brat- which I must admit is quite unlike you, and taking everything you have for granted."_

"_Granted? I have nothing left to take for granted! I spent six years working to find Jacob, and now he's dead all because of me!"_

_That for some reason got a reaction out of Professor Snape. "Do you think you are the only one who has caused the death of someone they cared for while trying to save them? Life does not stop moving forward just because someone died. If you feel so guilty, if you cared so much for that selfish troublesome brother of yours then stop this moping about right now and devote yourself to bringing those who killed him to justice. Do not let him die in vain."_

_A loud roaring noise filled his ears, and his vision darkened…_

_Die in vain. No. Jacob's death could not be futile. His brother, dead for nothing…No…NO!_

_He was vaguely mindful of someone opening his mouth and forcing him to drink something. The panic he felt started to fade as he became conscious of where he was. He saw long thin fingers holding a vial in front of his face. He turned his head to see who the person the hand belonged to was. He blinked at seeing his Potions Professor, and noticed that he was panting._

"_Calming draught. Your heart rate had accelerated; you are presently not physically strong enough to handle it."_

_He nodded, and as he did so realized that the Professor's other hand was firmly planted on the top of his head holding it in place though the grip was surprisingly gentle. _

"_Jacob, I… I don't want him to… to have died in vain…,"he murmured uncertainly._

"_Then don't let him." With that, the professor pulled back and straightened up. _

"_H...How? Should I become an Auror instead of a curse-breaker?"_

_The professor sniffed amusedly, "You do not have be an Auror to do something useful."_

_He numbly nodded. Then something occurred to him, "What am I taking for granted?"_

_Professor Snape sighed and fell quite gracefully into the chair at his bedside. Just as Daniel began to wonder if he even had an answer to that, he spoke, "I had not intended to speak with you today. In fact, due to my… wonderful bedside manner, the Headmaster asked that I not to speak to you about anything other than your injuries. He intends to speak to you himself when you are sufficiently recovered." He paused. "While I was entering, Mr. Khanna stopped me and asked to convey to you that he would be waiting right outside and you only had to call for him to be here. I informed him that I was under the impression you had threatened him, to which his reply was and I quote 'I understand that Daniel is angry, and if cursing me would make him feel better, I am willing to let him do as he pleases. But as his friend, I refuse to leave his side no matter what.' Miss Haywood has been rather troubled for quite some time as well. In addition, astonishingly, Miss Snyde has asked certain people if there was anything, she could do to get you back to your 'annoying old self'. There is also a distraught woman whom you resemble greatly, ready to murder Dumbledore. She has also taken to constantly hounding me regarding your recovery."_

_Daniel did not know how to respond to that, so he stayed silent. Mum on a warpath was strangely comforting, Penny being troubled was not so surprising; they had been dating for a few months now, but Rowan's willingness to be hurt to make him feel better and Merula wanting to help him get back to normal was startling. _

"_Did you have mental friends like them?" he did not know why he asked that but felt that they had crossed a bridge today and that it was not really Professor Snape he was talking to. _

_The answer came in the softest tone he had ever heard from the man next to him, "Friends who refused to leave me no matter how much I hurt them in my anger, you mean?" Maybe he was just imagining it, but the unnaturally stoic man sounded wistful, with a hint of sadness. _

_He felt horrible. It was not just the pain from whatever ancient magic had seeped into his body; it was the sickening realization of what he was doing. He barely noticed when the Professor got up to leave, but when he heard the infirmary door open, he called out, "Sir! Please ask Rowan to come in!" _

_He received no response and wondered if he could ask Madam Pomfrey, when the curtains parted again revealing the boy he had met in Diagon Alley a few days after receiving his Hogwarts letter. A few hours later, when mum came, he threw in a few off hand compliments about Snape. _

Maybe someday he would tell Harry about that day. He would certainly understand what Professor Snape had talked about. It was probably what he wanted to hear anyway. Not now though. It was too personal to tell someone he had only met twice. That boy needed to understand that the true Severus Snape remained only in people's memories. Their most private and intimate moments when it had probably just been them with the Professor, when either one or maybe even both of them were vulnerable, that the master spy had shown a brief glimpse of who he really was beneath all those masks. You did not just share those moments with anyone.

He pulled out his wand and conjured a bouquet, which he left at the foot of the tomb. Dumbledore had tried to help Jacob when he had been a student, but his brother had refused. Which is why when Daniel came along the old headmaster tried to keep him away from the mess, but when he refused to abandon his brother, he let things play out. Over the years Daniel had not spared much thought to Dumbledore, initially because he was too angry with the old man- he needed someone to blame for his brother's death after all- and later because he had been occupied with other matters. Now, the anger had faded away as if it had never been there in the first place. Dumbledore had done what he thought was best for everyone, and so had Daniel. He had never intended to harm anyone, and some things were just beyond your control no matter who you were.

Daniel gave a mock two-finger salute and turned smartly on his heel to head over to the castle. He was already late.

* * *

Minerva was already waiting at the front steps when Daniel had arrived at the front gates. She discreetly watched as he took a small detour before making his way to where she was standing.

Daniel Carter was one of her best lions. A true Gryffindor: immensely brave, loyal to the principles he believed in, and mercifully, without the arrogance and recklessness many displayed. With talents that impressed every teacher, and an endearing personality he had been quite the student. Not that he did not have his faults. He was far too kind, too willing to see the best in everyone, and too ready to give a second chance, quite like Albus in those regards. He had suffered greatly for it as well. However, that was where their similarities ended. While willing to go to any extent in order to reach his goal, Mr. Carter had proven repeatedly that he would never knowingly place anyone in harm's way and would not use anyone for his own ends. He would ask for assistance and offer his friendship and loyalty in return, but the risk and responsibility should things go south would be his. She made a mental note to commend his mother on his upbringing; with her elder son becoming a menace and getting himself expelled from Hogwarts, she had drilled a strong moral compass into her younger one. That combined with Daniel's levelheadedness and personal inclination to learn what he could from everyone around him, whether it be a spell or skill, had made him a fine wizard. It would be a pleasure to have him on staff. As a curse breaker, he was quite powerful as well, and Hogwarts needed extra protection until the permanent wards could be reset which was taking longer than expected.

"Hello Professor McGonagall!" Daniel waved from afar; Minerva simply smiled in response as she waited for him to walk up to her.

Once he was standing in front of her, she welcomed him back to Hogwarts, as a professor this time. He replied that his Rowan Khanna and his mother were happier about him getting the job than he could ever be.

"Mum thinks that being at Hogwarts would give me some stability after all the travelling I did, she thinks I ought to settle down and give her some grandkids."

Minerva laughed, "That's not very surprising. Do you have any particular woman in mind?"

Daniel immediately blushed red to the tips of his ears and looked around before clearing his throat and shyly mumbling a 'maybe'. She lightly smacked his arm and asked him to come along.

"It's already quite late in the day, so you don't need to get to work straight away. You may start tomorrow. As I told you, you will be taking over the Defense against Dark Arts post. I expect you to make the students understand what Dark Magic is, why it is harmful, and how they can defend against it, all without conveying or promoting any prejudices. You may refer older lesson plans of the previous teachers from the archives, though I would recommend that you create your own. You have full permission to revamp the syllabus as you see fit. Both practical and theory. I will approve it and make sure that the Board of Governors does as well." They had reached the grand staircase by now. She paused, "Any questions so far?"

He shook his head, "No ma'am, it's all straightforward till here."

She resumed walking and noted that Daniel's stride was quite long and he would have overtaken her had he not been walking slowly for her sake. _I must be getting old. _She discreetly increased her speed in defiance of whom she did not know.

"The additional duties you will have shall include petrol duties, maintenance of castle wards seeing as you _are _a curse-breaker and a Dark Arts expert, supervision of detentions, especially the ones you give, and most importantly," here she paused and turned to face him, when she realized with a jolt that up close he towered over her. _Just a few years ago, you were a little boy burying his face in my robes crying. I really have gotten old. _

"You seem preoccupied."

She raised her eyebrow at him, causing him to shrink back as if he were a first year student, _ha! Still got it! _

"Um… well, you… eh… seemed a bit lost in thought ma'am…"

_Not surprising. _"It has been a long day." _Moreover, there is still the staff meeting…oh Merlin. _

Daniel nodded, "Is there anything I can do to help? You know take a bit of burden off you…" he trailed off, not knowing if his offer of help was appropriate or not.

Minerva smiled, "Indeed there is one thing you can do." He looked at her expectantly. "You may prepare yourself to take over as Head of Gryffindor House. Do not worry, I shall guide you until I feel that you are ready, and assistance shall be available whenever you require it."

The boy, no, young man before her, stood absolutely still then abruptly shook his head as to clear it and asked, "With all due respect Professor, am I really the best choice for it? I mean, I have caused my fair share of trouble as a student."

Minerva almost wanted to laugh. Of course, he would politely demand that she show her faith in him, for all his outward poise, he could be rather insecure, a side effect of his brother's shenanigans resulting in people's lack of faith in him no doubt.

"Professors Hagrid and Babbling are both Gryffindors who have been teaching for years and are well liked by their respective students. However, I feel you would be most suitable for the position."

He smiled a shy but wide smile that seemed to brighten the room.

_Yes. Hiring this one was a good decision. Now to find a few more like him. Circe's wand!_

* * *

At last, the clock struck six, and signaled for everyone to come to the staff meeting. Usually such meetings were held in the staff room, but since that section of the castle had collapsed, it was decided that the meeting would be held in the great hall. The workers had gone home at five and since there were no students around, it was free for use.

The newly hired Professor Daniel Carter had been the first to arrive. Though he would like to claim that it was because he wanted to prove that he was a responsible young adult, the real reason was that he had been wandering around the grounds and courtyard and upon discovering that depressing had come inside and settled himself for the meeting. Anything to distract himself.

Professor Aurora Sinistra had been the next to arrive. She, by force of habit had wandered over to the Arithmancy classrooms to look for her friend Septima. The two witches had often spent the time before staff meeting making little bets on what antics the others would get up to, particularly the Headmaster, Minerva and Severus. Albus would say something absurd, Minerva would attempt to talk some sense into him and Severus would start a hilarious sarcastic rant. After ten minutes of searching, it hit her: Septima, Albus and Severus were dead and Minerva was now Headmistress. She practically flew down the staircases to get to the great hall. Anything to run away from the memories.

Filius had seen Aurora rush down the stairs and wrongly assumed that the meeting was under way and had quite literally flown down, self-levitation charms were quite useful at times.

Meanwhile in the great hall, Aurora had marveled at how the cherubic second year who had saved the entire school, including Aurora and her entire NEWTs class from being frozen in cursed ice had grown into a handsome young man, while the man in question complemented her in turn by saying that she had not aged a day. She had been quick to inform him that she was roughly twelve years his senior and therefore not that old leaving him muttering flustered apologies that were unnecessary as he had essentially said that she did not look older than twenty-five.

Soon after the rest of the staff trickled in, or wheeled and floated in like Bathsheeda Babbling and Cuthbert Binns, with Hagrid gamely teasing Daniel about finding his way. Apparently surviving a battle together makes you more courteous, as almost everyone greeted Sybil Trelawney with respect; her crystal balls had killed Fenrir Greyback in the end. Aurora could not bring herself to do the same; this woman's prophecy was both Severus's savior and bringer of doom. Daniel seated next to her noticed, but other than give her cocked brow, said nothing. He knew when to give people their space. Pomona came covered in dirt from the greenhouses she was trying to salvage, and rather than cheerfully greeting everyone as per usual, she quietly took her seat next to Filius. Madam Pomfrey was equally subdued and Irma Pince for once was not scowling. Argus Filch awkwardly shuffled in holding onto Mrs. Norris when Daniel called out a 'How ya doin' Sir' and surprising everyone but giving the squib who had not been able to contribute in the battle enough confidence to take a seat at the adjoining table for support staff. Rolanda Hooch limped in with the assistance of Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank. Surprisingly, the chief attendant of Witchcraft Provisions, Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus also arrived, leading to Aurora remarking under her breath that she had thought her to be retired, and then explaining to Daniel who she was upon seeing his confused expression. Their substitute teacher Mrs. Johannes brought forth an identical reaction. They too settled themselves on the adjoining table for support staff.

Horace Slughorn had just walked in when he froze upon seeing Aurora, leading her to feel slightly guilty. It had been more due to her anger at Severus being killed than his actual actions when she had yelled at him. She half-heartedly waved him over, while a few watched on in curiosity, the rest were uninterested in everything other than the top of the table. Horace cautiously stepped over and sat opposite to her and Daniel.

"Professor Sinistra," he said with a nod in her direction, "And who might this be?" he referred to Daniel.

Daniel, true to form, immediately smiled in a reassuring manner and thrust out his hand, "Daniel Carter, sir. I'm the new DADA professor."

Horace took his hand and seemed to gain back some of his jolly nature, which for some absurd reason made Aurora feel relieved.

"Carter… I taught a boy named Carter once-"

"Another star from your Slug club?" cut in Aurora. Manners be damned, she would punch his teeth out if he still sang praises of his precious slugs.

"No, not this one. If I remember correctly, he was a Hufflepuff with abysmal potioneering skills, though he had a pleasant and likable personality. And descended from a decent family too." He added the last part with a …was that a wince? Maybe she had knocked some sense into him.

"That would probably be my dad, Hufflepuff Prefect Richard Carter, he was a half-blood with a pureblood witch mother, hence the muggle surname. And yes, he was terrible at potions but good at charms and herbology."

"Yes, that must be him. What's he doing these days?" Horace for once looked genuinely interested.

"I wouldn't know sir. He died years ago." Daniel's smile had faded replaced by an unreadable expression.

The silence would have been very awkward with none of them knowing how to break it, when Minerva decided to make an entrance, a full fifteen minutes late.

"My apologies everyone, despite reminding everyone of the time, I lost track of it myself." While almost everyone smiled and commented that, it happens and not to worry, Minerva felt a pang of guilt for lying. The truth was that she had been standing outside for quite some time but had been unable to come in due to reasons she did not wish to dwell on.

She took her seat at the head of the table, and hoped that no one had noticed her split-second hesitation.

She placed the folder she had with her in front of her, and cleared her throat, "Welcome to the first staff meeting of the academic year 1998-99. This year will be first we have after the permanent death of the bane of our society, the self-styled Lord Voldemort. Due to reasons I need not explain, we shall be disregarding the academic performances of all students from the previous year 97-98 unless requested otherwise by students or their next of kin. The students shall be welcome to either repeat their year, or join the next year on the condition of appearing for a skill test intended to be held in November. In addition, the seventh year students are being given the option of returning for their final year at Hogwarts, and shall be treated as a separate 'eight-year' class. Do any teachers have objections to this?"

None did.

"Professor Carter, as we did not have DADA last year, each of your students will be a year behind. I hope you will be able to cope?"

"I'll manage, Ma'am."

"Very well, moving on, the castle repairs are taking longer than anticipated, therefore certain sections will be closed off to the students. There will have to a separate patrolling team for those areas. You are requested to volunteer your names, or we can just pull out random names from a hat." _Like a common muggle-magician. _A few hid smiles while the rest of the staff members looked anywhere but McGonagall while she resisted the urge to bury her hand in her face. Instead, she opened the folder she had and immersed herself in the task of making copies of the staff meeting's agenda. She was scolding herself that she should have done this beforehand, when it occurred to her that no derisive comment had come for the hat suggestion. Without thinking, out of habit she said to the gathering at large, "Nothing to say, Severus?"

The moment the words left her mouth, her senses returned to her from wherever they had scurried off to, but by then the silence that had taken over the room was deafening and the stillness such that even the wind refused to blow in from the glassless windows. She too, froze like everyone else, a parchment held in one hand, her wand loosely gripped in the other and her eyes unable to tear themselves from the table. She did not know how long she stayed in that position, it could have been years or mere seconds, but the next she knew was that her mouth had opened and uttered an 'excuse me' and then, she was standing in the entrance hall looking out to the carnage that remained of the school's front gardens.

Inside, everyone's reactions were a bit varied; Aurora had closed her eyes and focused all her attention on her breathing. Now was not the time to lose control of herself and start agonizing about how she would cope with life. The time for that would be in the privacy of her quarters. Horace became acutely aware of Severus's place on the staff not just as a professor but as a person as well; Minerva had spoken as if remarking on the weather, it was an ingrained habit. Horace marveled at how he, the former teacher would now struggle to fill at least the professional shoes of the former student. Filius quietly contemplated this recent incident; it was now clear to him that Minerva was still not entirely in the present. It also explained why she had refused to discuss Severus after a point. Madam Promfrey and Hagrid pulled out handkerchiefs' and were wiping tears while Pomona, bless her, was attempting damage control by assuring the others that Minerva was exhausted, just as they were, and requesting them to be patient with her and themselves. In the midst of this, Daniel, new to the staff and having a vague hunch of how close they could become, left his seat to bring back Minerva. He had said he would help in any way he could, and he intended to keep his word.

Once he spotted her, he realized he was not sure on how to approach her. With his friends, he often went and wrapped an arm around them for comfort. He had a feeling it would not be appropriate to do the same here, not yet anyway. Instead he quietly walked up to her, the way one would approach a cat so as not to startle her (obviously…) and stood next to her as one would do so at a funeral (fitting really).

Minerva knew who was standing next to her, and knew why that was. However, she made no move to acknowledge him. Her thoughts and emotions were running all over the place. Apparently, a year of living purely on fear of the next curse she would not be able to protect the students from and anger at a betrayal were not conductive to emotional and mental stability in the long run. Who would have guessed? She had acted as Headmistress plenty of times in the past, but this was different, and far more difficult. It was not until she stood outside as everyone waited for her to arrive and begin the meeting did she realize how much she did not want to go through all this. Not in these circumstances and most certainly not alone. Only then did it truly hit her how much she had relied on Severus to keep them safe with his uncanny ability to know exactly what needed to be done and relatively sane using his scathing quick wit. It was something she had not admitted to herself, until now.

_You never knew how much your presence mattered to us. You never knew how important you were. And we never thought to tell you._

"I once asked him how he was."

The joints in her neck unlocked themselves as she turned to face her new youngest colleague.

He was staring at his shoes with a brooding expression, "Professor Snape, he had me in detention scrubbing cauldrons. I asked him after I was done." He clarified unnecessarily. "He had the most bewildered expression I had ever seen. I explained that he had been looking a bit paler for a few days and also slower in the classroom and not as 'Snape-like' as he usually was."

She could not stop the corners of her mouth from twitching slightly, "I suppose he gave you another detention for that."

Now Daniel smiled a sly smile and locked eyes with her, "Actually, no. He sighed, rolled his eyes and with a resigned air asked, 'McGonagall put you up to this didn't she?' Seeing my confused expression he said 'never mind' and told me get out of his classroom."

Her mind was blank. Why, in Merlin's great name would Severus respond like that? She had occasionally pestered him about his health when it was obvious he was not taking of himself, but had never sent a student to do it for her. A ghost once…

"When had this occurred?"

"Hmm. My fifth or sixth year maybe, it was still winter, I remember that."

_They graduated in '91… so this should be in…_

"It was after Christmas break, in early '89. He had been ill over the entire break, and had not regained his full health for weeks." It had been a sudden and severe case of Dragon pox; she had scolded him and kept him company in the hospital wing when he had tried to escape back to his quarters due to boredom. For almost a month afterward, he had taken to making sure she noticed how much he ate to stop her 'nagging' as he called it before it even began. The truth was that most of the staff had been worried, as for all his sickly looks, Severus rarely fell ill and in this instance Poppy had claimed him to be at death's door; of course, not that anyone had the courage to ask how he was, other than Albus and her. Aurora had been away and was rather shocked to learn that he had been ill. Come to think of it, hadn't she taken over as temporary Head of Slytherin while he recovered?

However, that was not the point. The point was that he had known that she would not believe him when he said that he was fine and would send someone completely unrelated to check up on him. Even if for just a moment, he had known that she would care enough to check up on him. Maybe, just maybe, he did realize that he mattered more than what he could do for them.

Even if the thought was true, it was possible that he had doubted it the last year in the face of all the mistrust and open contempt, but Minerva was not thinking about that now. She had been thrown a lifeline while she was struggling to stay afloat in a raging ocean, nothing would stop her from taking it. She needed it right now.

"He was your friend wasn't he?" Daniel asked softly.

"An unexpected one, but one of the best I ever had."

For once, Daniel allowed a bit of vulnerability show. He trusted the woman in front of him, and it was difficult trying to be upbeat and calm the whole day. "I had plenty of those too. Some of them are gone, and I really don't know what to do."

She thought about what he said for a moment, the instinct to be the mature person taking over, "Perhaps, there really is nothing we can do." She paused and smiled at him, "Besides returning to the staff meeting and getting done with it."

He broke into a light laugh, "Shall we?" he jerked his head in the direction of the Great Hall.

No one said anything as they entered the hall, Minerva with her head held high and Daniel a step behind as a show of respect. Filius had copied and distributed the agenda among the staff and everyone was perusing it and pretending that the abrupt departure of their head had not occurred. Minerva was quite fine with letting that continue, for now.

"Now, getting back to the matter of the patrol duties…"the response she received was a collective and muffled groan, followed by an amused chuckle by a certain professor, (no points for guessing whom).

She looked over her staff one more time, before going ahead with the hat idea, when Daniel shyly raised his hand.

"Daniel dear, you are no longer a student; you do not need to raise your hand to speak in the meeting." A lightly blushing Daniel lowered his hand, and spoke, "Ma'am, is it possible to use the ghosts for patrolling in those areas? The Bloody Baron scares almost everyone, Duncan Ashe can haunt quite well when he wants too, the Grey Lady is very good at sending away students, then there is the headless hunt, and it's mostly the new students who would be curious- the older ones wouldn't want to visit those places that serve a reminder to what happened."

_This could actually work; the professors would be free to see to other matters. _

"I will consider your proposition Professor Carter. I hope you are prepared to converse with the castle's non-living residents." _His idea, his responsibility. _She could always order the ghosts as Headmistress since they were bound to obey her, but it would be better if they willingly agreed to it.

"Moving on…" for half an hour they discussed the various tasks given to the professors and other mundane concerns such as where to hold classes in case the actual ones had been destroyed. Then came the news Aurora had been waiting for all day, the announcement on House Heads.

"As you are aware, our staff has faced some losses. There will be some new faces and a bit of shuffling for the old ones. Firstly, Professor Filius Flitwick, will be taking over as the Deputy Headmaster in addition to his House Head role. Any objections?" Usually that question was a formality. Rarely were such appointments protested, unless they involved the Defense position, which had become a joke in recent years. Minerva thought back to the day when Severus was appointed as a House Head, she had argued tooth and nail against his appointment citing reasons such as young age, not enough experience and even vaguely hinting at his allegiances in the war. He had sat quietly and fumed while Albus tried to convince her and everyone silently watched. In the end, it was the argument that there was no other Slytherin on the staff and thus he was the only choice that shut her up. It had been months before she realized how insulting that moment might have been for him.

Well, not anymore. She had a choice and she would make a decision, and for once, do right by the most neglected house at Hogwarts.

When no objections were voiced and Filius was duly congratulated on the appointment, she continued, "In another shuffling of the staff, as Head of Slytherin, I appoint Professor Aurora Sinistra. Professor Horace Slughorn will be staying on as Potions Master. Does the rest of the staff have any objection?"

There were some confused faces, though no serious objections. When Pomona, out of curiosity asked why, Horace, who had been rather quite throughout the meeting, replied. "Aurora was already next in line as Head, Pomona. In addition, Slytherin needs hands-on leadership, which she can provide, and I cannot since I'm getting on in years. I am happy to step down and hand over the reins to a capable witch who will certainly restore our proud house to its former glory." This answer seemed to provide satisfaction to every staff member. Minerva had a slight suspicion as to the sincerity of Horace's little impromptu speech, did he truly mean it or was it just to ensure she or Aurora did not open their mouth and ruin his reputation? One look at Aurora told she was on a similar train of thought. Minerva decided to dwell on it later. There was little voice in head that sounded suspiciously like Severus, snidely remarking that she had many things to think about later. She ignored it for now.

Aurora received her congratulations from the rest with what she hoped was something resembling a smile. _Well, it is not as if they will hold it against me if it's not proper, we have just been through a war for Merlin's sake. _Though relieved and elated that she had been Head of Slytherin, there was now a new burden on her shoulders. She sincerely prayed that she would be able to do well, just as Severus would have wanted her to.

Minerva resumed announcing her decisions, "Seeing as Headmistress I will not be able to continue as a Head of House, I have decided to pass on my title to our new DADA instructor, Professor Daniel Ray Carter. He is a steadfast Gryffindor who has proven himself responsible and mature. I believe him to be capable of taking on the role of a House Head. Does any member of the staff have any objections?"

The first objection came from Mr. Filch who claimed that Daniel was a prankster and had broken into his office far too many times to be trusted. Before Minerva could respond Daniel jumped up and apologized to Mr. Filch for whatever trouble he caused and assured him that he had not broken into his office out of malice but out of necessity. He additionally promised that he would not tolerate rule breaking and even if it occurred for a good cause, he would duly mete out punishment just he was given in his day. Mr. Filch could not protest the last point since everyone remembered that not only had he been in indefinite daily detentions in the kitchens in his fifth and sixth year, he occasionally found himself losing points and in additional detentions with other teachers regardless..

In the light of this point, it occurred to Minerva that Severus's assertion that Potter was not punished accordingly did hold some merit. She vowed to think deeply on this matter later on. She needed to speak with Potter anyway, preferably before he joined Auror training in September, in the hopes that she might dissuade him from his usual impulsiveness and defiance of authority.

Dealing with the second objection was a bit more difficult. After Mr. Filch settled down, Mrs. Johannes muttered under her breath, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Wonderful. Another young upstart Head who doesn't know what to do."

The ensuing silence was uncomfortable; Daniel immediately stiffened up and focused his attention on the table with a frown, he could not assuage her, he _was_ young and he did not know what to do. Technically, among the Hogwarts staff, he was an upstart.

Minerva began slowly, "Mrs. Johannes, I assure you that I will be personally overseeing Daniel's actions as a professor until he settles into the role. He is a quick learner and will not disappoint."

She received a scoff in return followed by a sarcastic, "Do as you see fit, Headmistress."

Minerva pursed her lips and contemplated whether it was worth disciplining a member of the support staff before the term even began. She could just ignore it and move on, the objection did not have any basis, but it may cause Daniel problems in the future. Then again, it might not be that serious of an issue- Mrs. Johannes was a substitute teacher; Daniel would not have much interaction with her, as she could not teach his classes. She glanced at the young man in question, and for a moment saw, Severus slightly hunched over scowling at the table and controlling his temper in the face of distrust from his peers. He looked up, but instead of black, her eyes met with shining deep blue ones that searched for guidance and maybe even hoped for a bit of support. _Any price was worth paying if it kept someone safe from ridicule. _

Determined, she spoke, "Mrs. Johannes, do you have any reason to object to Professor Carter's appointment other than his young age and inexperience, which I firmly believe to be an asset seeing as we have to rebuild quite literally our entire world both physically and metaphorically?" _Go ahead; accuse me of playing favorites, the hell if I care. _

Mrs. Johannes turned purple and remarked, "Speaking from experience, headmistress, the last one nearly caused this castle to be levelled. How do we know this one is any better? From what I've heard, he caused quite many problems with those fabled vaults."

"First of all, the cursed vaults were not fabled, and it was R's gang that caused the problems, not me. I solved them, though I admit, I broke many rules and did cause a lot of mayhem in the process. Do keep in mind that if I hadn't, things would have been a lot worse. Secondly, I know exactly how students get in trouble, so I can use that knowledge to outsmart them. Looking at it that way, I'm not exactly inexperienced." Daniel finished with a smile. Minerva could see that the mention of the vaults had him agitated, but for now, he seemed in control of himself.

"Thirdly," began a rather stiff Aurora, "Who exactly is the last one who nearly levelled the castle? Because the last time I checked, Voldemort was not a House Head or even a staff member."

"I think you already know. You were rather good friends with him…"

If looks could kill, Mrs. Johannes would have dropped by now, such was Aurora's responding glare. Her wand was out and pointed at Mrs. Johannes before Minerva could put a stop to this absurdity.

"Severus was not at fault, so don't you dare blame him for all of this. He gave up _everything_ to prevent this." Everyone was stunned into silence by Aurora's actions and tone of voice. She was known to be pleasant to be around, sarcastic at times, but still overall pleasant. Right now though, she looked ready commit murder. Daniel was the first to recover. He jumped up and firmly placed himself between Aurora's wand and Mrs. Johannes with his hands held up in a placating gesture.

"Aurora!" Minerva made her way to the witch and held her wand arm, "Lower your wand, now." Aurora looked from her to Daniel who refused to budge, protecting someone who had just questioned his credibility and attempted to humiliate him, someone he had no reason to like. She lowered her wand and took her seat. Daniel was appointed and everyone agreed that he should be given the position once Minerva claimed that she would step in and take over should Daniel not be able to handle his responsibilities.

Aurora refused to look at anyone and left as soon as the meeting was over. Halfway to her tower, Daniel caught up to her. Well, truthfully he said two words that froze her in place allowing him to catch up.

"I heard him say that to someone the night of my graduation party. I had stepped out for a moment, and was standing in a hidden alcove near the courtyard when I saw him walking towards someone who had her back to him. He slowly walked up to her and turned her to face him." She stubbornly refused to look at him. "It was either a new moon or a cloudy night because it was too dark to make out the faces of anyone. All I know is that when I saw them together, I didn't see people, I just saw love. It really was as beautiful as everyone claims it to be. I don't know what they said to each other, and frankly, I don't want to know either. All I know is that you two looked like you belonged together. I think that is more important than what someone like Mrs. Johannes thinks of him." He stepped closer, "Please don't let your grief turn to anger upon the world Professor. It won't help anyone."

He had said the same thing to her when his mark had started to darken. He had made her promise that she would not become angry and bitter at everything related to him the way he had let himself become.

"_I speak from experience Borealis. It gives you a moment of satisfaction but once it passes you feel emptier than you did before." _

"_Then why do you not stop?" A pause._

"_I cannot, I do not know how to. And even if I did, it would be too dangerous."_

She had promised him she would not. They both had made promises to each other, only to break them. Or so she had thought until a few weeks ago. He had never truly broken any of his promises, no matter how many there were to who knows how many people. She on the other hand, had willfully broken some of hers, including the most repeated one, and she had broken it to his face. Maybe she had even broken a bit him with it. Indeed, it was possibly the one thing he dreaded most, next to the deaths of those few he was affectionate towards. That moment was also the last time she saw him alive.

Daniel had stepped back and was turning to walk away, when she asked him, "What makes you think it was me you saw that night?" She finally turned to look at him.

He smiled and lifted his hand to count off the clues on his fingers, "Your breath hitched momentarily when McGonagall had that slip up- I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been sitting right next to you. Your smile when she named you Head of Slytherin seemed bittersweet; you also completely lost your cool when Mrs. Johannes insulted him." He paused, "The most important clue was your name, though. It should have been enough, but I'm not that smart."

She pulled out her wand and pressed it against his chest, "Reveal any of this to anyone, and you won't be able to walk for a long time."

He put his finger on the tip and lowered it, "I do not intend to, Professor. I'll take your leave now."

As he walked away, she called out to him, half because he had earned a respectable response from her, and half out of the desire to get the last word in. "Call me Aurora. You've earned that familiarity, Professor Carter."

He replied without missing a beat. "Well then Aurora, call me Daniel."

They both went their own way and though they did not realize it now, this was the beginning of a strange sort of camaraderie. One that would serve them well- both professionally and on a personal level. At the end of the day, everyone needed a friend who could understand and relate to one's own life.

* * *

Back in her personal quarters, Aurora lay on her bed, on top of the covers, staring at her ceiling. Daniel's words were still ringing in her head. She was not sure if she was more shocked by what he had said, or by the way he had called out. For a moment, she had thought that it was Severus, somehow still alive. Shock and relief had dominated all her thoughts, until Daniel walked up and stood beside her. Then it had been an ocean of disappointment and grief. It was a miracle she hadn't hexed him where he stood. It was uncanny how much he sounded like Severus in that moment. Perhaps it was just her mind warping his voice to sound like Severus's because she wanted to hear him say her name.

She let her thoughts drift back to the night he had reminded her of, the summer before Potter came to Hogwarts and slowly everything changed.

"_Borealis stop!"_

_Hearing the hardly noticeable note of desperation in his voice, she stopped and let him walk up to her. It was moonless clear night, perfect for stargazing and here they were, two lovers, arguing if love was enough._

_She felt his hands gently, but with a firmness that came from years of using them deliberately, grip her shoulders and slowly turn her around to face him. She let him do as he wished, but kept her stare focused on one of the buttons on his dress coat. He cupped her face in his hands with a tenderness hardly anyone would consider him capable of demonstrating. _

"_Listen to me. I don't want to do this anymore than you do-"_

"_Then why do it?" She cut him off fiercely. _

"_It is the only way to keep you safe." He replied matter-of-factly._

_She sighed and rested her forehead on the space just beneath where his neck started. He wrapped her arms around her and pressed her to him. _

"_Have we not had this argument before? Thrice if I recall correctly." She mumbled into his collar, she would kiss his neck had it been visible._

"_This is actually the third time." She wrapped her arms around him too, it was windy, and he was surprisingly warm. _

_She lifted her head and looked him the eye, "I love you. And I don't want to lose you." She allowed a slight pleading note to leak into her voice. If she had to put on a puppy-dog face to melt him out this absurd idea of his then by all means, she would do it. _

"_Don't give me that wide-eyed innocent look. It does not suit you." Well, so much for that. She scowled at him while he stared at her with those impossibly black eyes that seemed endless. She could feel his breath on her forehead, all she had to do was reach up a bit… wait, were those tears in his eyes? _

_She tucked a stray lock behind his ear and brushed her thumb against his cheek, "Severus…"_

"_If they get a whiff of what you mean to me, they'll…" he choked, and begged her to understand with just his eyes, and she did, she truly understood why he was so afraid of anything happening to her. However, that did not mean she would let him separate them in a misguided attempt to keep her safe. _

"_Have you forgotten that you taught me occlumency for the sole reason of keeping our love, secret? Or have you forgotten that I said I would stay by your side no matter what?" She asked him. "No, but-" she cut him off with a slow and soft kiss. When they broke apart, with their foreheads touching, he spoke again, "Loving me will cause you nothing but pain and grief in the end."_

"_I'll take it gladly tomorrow if it means I can have you with me today."_

"_You really are mental, Borealis."_

_She kissed him again and murmured against his lips in between kisses, "Remember what Publilius once said: Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. Even a God finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time, Severus. And we are just mere mortals." _

"_We need to be careful." He said in grave voice. _

"_When aren't we?" _

_This time, he kissed her. "When it is just you and I, the world ceases to exist."_

_They stood there a while longer, wrapped in each other's arms, their foreheads touching and their breaths mingling, until the fear that their continued absence would be noticed became too much to ignore. With a few minutes between them, from different entrances, they went back to the great hall where the graduating lot was enjoying their time with each other for possibly the last time in this castle. _

The graduation party of '91 batch. She had remembered that at that party Severus had once again half-heartedly attempted to drive a wedge between them, but had not recalled that Daniel was also part of that year's graduates. It had never occurred to either of them that some wandering student would have seen them. She wondered how many other students had seen them in passing but had kept it to themselves. She wondered how much he had seen, and felt embarrassed and equal parts annoyed that a former student had caught them kissing in the courtyard. Either he must have been well hidden or Severus had been too distraught to pay attention. Out of necessity and a desire for privacy, they had kept their relationship a secret from everyone.

Well, mostly everyone. The Bloody Baron knew and often acted as a guard and messenger for them, they had been suspicious that Minerva had an inkling to what was going on and Septima had all but caught them together in bed and given Aurora hell for it. Lastly, the summer after Diggory's death, Dumbledore had discovered them together. It had led to an interesting conversation, which resulted in Aurora discovering why he was the greatest wizard of their time. Despite what everyone, including Severus, at times believed, Dumbledore truly did care for him. He just could not afford to show it, the same way they could not openly state their love.

_Damn the war! Curse Voldemort! I hope he rots in the depths of Hell!_

That monster had ruined everything. Especially their house. Well, not anymore. She was the Head of Slytherin now and she would make sure that she shaped those young minds to be reasonable and rational, not hypocritical and prejudiced. Moreover, she would do it openly unlike Severus who forced to forever sulk in the shadows. She just needed to figure out a way to stop the other houses from turning Slytherin into a scapegoat for all their troubles.


	5. Trio's Day Out

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or any related works, they belong to J.K Rowling. I do own Daniel Carter, the MC from Hogwarts Mystery Mobile game.

**Author's note:** Characters and scenes from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (RPG Mobile Game) will be used later on in this story.

* * *

The day after Remus and Tonks's funeral, Harry Potter was up very early. Why wouldn't he be? He finally had something to do! Something that did not involve sitting and getting lost in thoughts, or just talking with people without knowing what to say. He could not help but feel a little excited too. He had not even known there was something called the Potions Guild. He wondered if such 'Guilds' existed for other branches of magic as well, like transfiguration or charms, or defense. He had heard about an academy for flying from a few senior students during Quidditch practice, so he supposed that if not a Guild there must be something.

He jumped out of bed feeling more alive than he had in … in a long time. Had the war ended just over three weeks ago? It felt like a lifetime. As he stood beneath the hot shower, letting the water cascade over him, he thought back to the prophecy, _neither can live while the other survives…_, it had turned out to be true. Though he had moments of normal life filled with homework, petty teenage drama, Quidditch practice, and just hanging out with his friends, for majority of his life since coming to the wizarding world had been overshadowed by the war and Voldemort, especially these last few years. Now that old snake face was gone for good, he could actually have a normal life. At least as normal as his life could be. Had it ever even been normal? For so long, avoiding being killed and foiling Voldemort had been normal. _I suppose I can find a new normal. Or is that make a new normal. A more normal 'normal'. Wait… what? _

At the strange turn of his thoughts, Harry wondered if getting killed and coming back from the dead really had loosened something in his brain. Before he could spend considerable time dwelling on it, Ron banged on the bathroom door, telling him to hurry up and come out before he finished all the hot water.

"You aren't the only one who spent the better part of last year without a proper shower!" was his best friend's indignant claim.

In the distance, he could hear Hermione exclaim, "Ronald!"

He closed his eyes and silently thanked Merlin, the Gods, and whatever powers that controlled the world and its greater happenings, that he had not lost these two before finishing up and stepping out.

Once he got dressed and came downstairs, he spotted Ginny. She smiled upon seeing him and he was grateful that she was okay too.

On the breakfast table, Mrs. Weasley noticed his mood; compared to other days, he could be called jovial today.

"Good to see you looking better Harry. Did you have a good nights' sleep?" she inquired while placing a plate of toast and bacon in front of him.

He thought about it while biting into a piece of toast, "Actually, yeah. I did sleep better last night." After swallowing he added, "We three are going out today, but it'll be after noon."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Molly Weasley felt elated knowing that at least someone was starting to move past the shock and grief of what happened. She herself was trying to behave as normally as possible for others sake, though they all knew that the random moments throughout the day where she would disappear, she would actually lock herself in a room alone and cry after putting up silencing spells. Everyone except Mr. Weasley pretended that they did not know what was occurring. Harry supposed it was their way of giving each other space, so he too followed the lead of the other Weasley children.

He smiled at her and then nodded to George who had just plonked himself down on the table. George did not respond. He had not responded to anyone for anything unless necessary. Mr. Weasley claimed that it was just his way of dealing of things and it was best to not push him so soon. Harry did not.

He was leaving his plate in the sink for washing when Ron came down, water dripping all over his shoulders from his hair. "I'll be in the back garden." He informed him and went out.

Outside, he found Ginny and Hermione discussing something. He plopped himself on the ground next to them and then debated with himself if it was okay to wrap an arm around Ginny. Just as he thought that it would be okay to do so, he noticed Bill giving him a side eyed look. He chose to remain as he was.

Hermione was talking about how she would like to return to Hogwarts for her final year, and Ginny starting teasing her saying that would be in the same classes, when Ron showed up and brought up the topic that was on Harry's mind.

"'Mione, when do we leave for the Guild?" he asked.

"We can go around 11. I don't know where it is, so we will have to stop at the Ministry to check." She turned to him, "You can meet with Shacklebolt again if you want while Ron and I get the address and instructions and how to even get there."

"Alright." It was a good plan.

"What Guild? And why are you three visiting one together?" Ginny was looking at them as if she was doubting that they were who they said they were. Considering the fact that Ron had bought up the topic, her doubts did have a certain basis.

Hermione took it upon her to explain, "Remember that animagus and his friends who came yesterday? One of them used to be Snape's apprentice. She told us that Snape was a well-known and respected potioneer. So we decided what better to know someone other than go through his work?"

Ginny was quite for a moment, and then looked away and said, "You guys are crazy. Then again, you always have been."

This was not the first time someone had said that but that did not stop his temper from flaring. "Well, excuse me for wanting to know more about the man who was my mum's childhood best-friend and who spent years protecting me without me knowing and didn't even get a burial in the end!"

Ginny looked to him and clenched her jaw. Harry could see that she was angry too, but he was not backing down on this. No, Snape deserved that Harry acknowledge his role even if he continued to think he was a git. It was as Sirius had said that everyone has light and dark inside of them. He had seen mostly the dark inside Snape, and now he wanted to see the light. There was nothing wrong in that.

"Best-friend, huh? So your mum never had friends other than him? Why not go look for them rather than go dig into a dead man's life? It's not as if he'd appreciate you snooping anyway." she shot back at him.

Harry felt incredibly angry at this. Ginny had hit a nerve whether she wanted to or not. Harry stood up said as coldly as he could, "How is looking for my dead mother's friends any different from looking into a dead man's life?" Ginny paled. He continued, "They both died protecting me. I can look into both their lives, or one, or even none. The point is that I can do whatever I want without explaining myself to anyone!" Without realizing, his voice had risen to a shout that bought out almost everyone. Ginny was still on the ground and refusing to look at anyone, Ron was looking like he could not decide whom to be angry at, and Hermione was looking worriedly at him. The rest were looking lost at what had just happened. It felt suffocating. He decided he did not want to stay here any longer.

He stalked upstairs to the room he and Ron shared, and got dressed to go out. While walking over to outside of the anti-apparition wards, he called out to Ron and Hermione, "I'll meet you at the Ministry at 11. If you decide to come." He apparated without waiting for a response and landed in Godric's Hollow. It was the first place that came to mind. He had no other explanation for it. The last time he had been here had been in the winter, on Christmas Eve, with Nagini trying to kill him and Hermione, and his wand getting broken. Now it was summer with the leaves still green and the ground no longer covered in snow. He thought that Godric's Hollow was a cozy little out of the way village, and thus the perfect place to hide, for the Dumbledores and the Potters. The only problem was that two Dark Lords decided to show up and ruin it. _Hmm. I suppose history does repeat itself. _

He made his way to the cemetery to sit at his parent's grave. Upon reaching the grave, he once again read the inscription: _The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death. _Well, he had died and come back to life, so he had destroyed death, hadn't he? Not that he had made any arrangements or anything. He had done what he was told to do; everything else just fell into place. Only now was it occurring to him that how many things could have gone wrong. It was as McGonagall had said when they had survived the troll- _Sheer dumb luck._

He sighed and sat down crossing his legs in front of him. He thought about all that he knew about his parents, but found that the things he had discovered in recent times, made him angry instead of proud. It could also be the leftover anger from his disagreement with Ginny, but he ignored that.

His dad had been a bully, who went so far as to hide his hexing of Snape from his mum while Remus and Sirius claimed that he had changed. He could not ever imagine why his father had done that. What reason did he have to take a small disagreement about houses while still on the train so personally that he continued to torment a person who had not even looked in his direction? Because that was what had happened that day by the lake. Snape had been minding his own business when he and Sirius attacked him two against one in front of half the school. _Why Dad? Why did you do that? Didn't you feel even a little bad about what you were doing? Didn't you think it was wrong for even one moment? _

His thoughts then went to his mother. She had almost smiled. It had not been important when he had first seen it, but now that he knew what he knew, he could not wrap his head around it. Best friends do not smile when their best friends are hung upside down. Moreover, there is nothing funny about hanging someone upside down and displaying his or her underwear to half the school. He could never imagine smiling or even thinking about smiling had it been Malfoy doing that to Ron. Knowing him, he probably would have blasted that ferret face into next week the minute he insulted Ron, and gladly taken detentions scrubbing cauldrons and gutting toads and all manner of disgusting creatures for the next ten years. _Well, maybe not ten years… oh why not! Ten years of detentions would be worth it! _He turned his attention back to the grave and asked, not realizing that he was talking aloud, "So why in Merlin's name did you not do the same?"

Of course, he received no answer. He sat there for some time, silently letting his anger stew. When he felt that the worst had blown over, he wandered over to where the little cottage was. He stood there just outside the gate looking over, contemplating whether to go in or not. In the end, he decided that he would go in. Just not today. He apparated to the Ministry - it was almost 11.

He went inside and then snuck into a corner to put on his invisibility cloak to find Kingsley without having to deal with his 'adoring fans'.

He found him talking to a handsome young Auror. Next to him was another female Auror who looked familiar… _isn't that Tonks's partner who is going to be in-charge of training? What was her name again…oh yeah – Tulip Karasu._

Harry stayed a bit behind, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping on his bosses. He was not interested in knowing what they were saying anyway.

He approached Kingsley as soon as those two walked away, "Don't jump. It's me, Harry."

Kingsley didn't give any indication that he had heard, and while looking straight ahead said out the corner of his mouth, "My office, now." He proceeded to walk ahead, nodding to some workers, leaving Harry to rush to stay with him while simultaneously avoiding bumping into anyone. He was quite relieved upon reaching the Minister's office. He immediately threw off his cloak and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Hello Minister."

Kingsley settled himself on his chair before speaking, "Its Kingsley, Harry. So, what can I do for you today?"

"Nothing really. Just thought I'd drop by and say hello." He took the chair in front of the desk and leaned back.

Kingsley gave him a look that told Harry he was not being believed. He ignored it for a while, but in the end decided to speak. Over the past few weeks, Kingsley had been a calm presence among the grieving people he was usually surrounded with.

"What am I doing wrong if I want to know more about the lives of those who died so that I can honor them in my memory?"

Kingsley blinked. "Nothing. There is nothing wrong in wanting to know more about someone who has passed on. However, you need to respect other people who have also been affected by the person's demise. For example, a person wanting to know about Sirius so that he could mourn would be okay, but would you be okay with it if he insisted you share every personal moment you had with your godfather?"

Harry did not like it that Kingsley decided to bring up Sirius, but decided to hold his tongue for now. "Of course not. Why should I share those memories with anyone?"

"Exactly what I'm trying to say. You can dig around about Snape all you want, but be sure to respect other people's boundaries."

"Wait, how did you know that I was digging around about Snape?" Did everyone know that? Surely, he could not be _that_ transparent.

"I'm observant." He paused, "Let me know if you find anything significant. It'll be useful when we give him a posthumous trial."

Harry straightened up and leaned forward, "Why does he need a trial? I told everyone the truth. I even made a public statement to the press just like you asked me to."

Kingsley held up his hands in a placating manner, "Calm down Harry. The trial is to systematically prove that Snape was acting on behalf of the Order and was on our side all along. Once there has been a trial and he is declared innocent, many of people's doubts will be laid to rest and we can properly honor him without sparking a controversy. Until then, I would appreciate it if you could avoid mentioning him in public. Let things settle down, once some normalcy is returned; we will put everything to rest. Right now, the more he remains in public eye, the more reporters like Skeeter will tarnish his name rendering the upcoming trial useless."

He groaned upon hearing that name, "Can't you just ban Skeeter from publishing?"

"That would be illegal."

"Then change the law."

"Brilliant idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

Harry decided to change the topic. "I met the female Auror you were talking with yesterday at Tonks's funeral. Who was the other guy?"

"He's Diego Caplan. The dueling instructor and muggle camouflage expert of the training department. He will be teaching you people along with Tulip. You've already been introduced to her?"

"Yeah. She said she was Tonks's partner."

He nodded. "We had five applicants from her Hogwarts batch, four were selected. Caplan is one of them, he was a Hufflepuff too. The other boy, Talbott Winger, was a Ravenclaw like Tulip."

"What does he teach? Or do?" he added,

"Nothing. He was killed in a Death Eater raid soon after Snake face came out to the public. Lost his family in the first war, he was the last one standing, fighting till the end."

"Oh." He didn't know how to respond to that. Well, maybe this was not the best topic for conversation. Obviously, Aurors would die on the job. He would be taking that risk too.

Kingsley opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Ron and Hermione burst into the room.

"Harry! Thank Merlin we found you mate!" exclaimed a relieved Ron. Hermione seemed excited instead, "Come on. I've got the address for the Potions Guild."

"His other workplace. Good choice. Go on Harry. We can talk later." Kingsley exchanged greetings with Ron and Hermione and waved them off. It was time to see another side of Snape. One that hardly any student at Hogwarts had seen.

* * *

The Potions Guild was located in the town of Ammanford of the Carmarthenshire area of South-west Wales. Perhaps, it would be better to say that it was located underneath the town, extending all the way towards the abandoned coalmines nearby. To reach it, they had to first floo to the local Ministry office in Llanelli, and then take the train (it had a special compartment for the wizarding population). From the train station, they made their way to the local post office. The clerk who sat below the north-facing window was a Squib who worked as the gatekeeper for the Guild.

Harry was suitably impressed with the whole process, and said so to Hermione.

"The Ministry doesn't have any authority over any such Guild. It is an autonomous body unlike Hogwarts, which is a state school. The Guild chose their own location and set up all the security wards and procedures themselves as well. It has been around for nearly three hundred years and has only expanded underground since it was made. They aren't even obliged to keep the Ministry informed of the research they conduct as long as it does not interfere with the muggles of the town." Recited Hermione from a handbook she had with her.

"Wow. No wonder Snape kept his apprentice hidden there. But why is the whole thing underground?" asked Ron.

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Didn't you read the first chapter of our first year potions textbook? Potions cannot be brewed properly if there is unpredictable environmental interference. That's why all the potions labs and classrooms were in the dungeons, so that the weather outside could not affect them in any way."

Truth was that Harry could not remember reading anything like that, but seeing, as he was not in the mood to be made to feel idiotic, he kept quiet. This Guild was sounding more and more interesting, despite being related to one of his least favorite subjects.

The train pulled up at the station, and they got out into the damp weather. After getting the directions from a local, they started to make their way to the post office. The town had a scenic beauty in it, which Harry found calming. It did not take long to reach the post office, but it did take long to convince the clerk to let them pass.

"I don't care who you are, unless you have a visitation permit from the approval of a registered Potioneer, I cannot grant you entry." This after he spent fifteen minutes shaking their hands and telling them how much he had heard of them and that it was an honor to meet them.

At this point Ron pushed Harry and Hermione back and tried a new tactic. "Look, we've already been accepted into the Auror program, you sure you don't want to grant us entry?"

The old clerk's eyes hardened and his jaw clenched. He placed his palms on the table and stood up. "Is a Ministry official threatening a worker of an independent Guild? That too without any legal leg to stand on?" he spoke menacingly.

Harry immediately pushed Ron back and took charge. He spoke as calmly as he could, "No. My friend here was merely trying to hint at the fact that we might be here for some investigation."

The clerk looked at him suspiciously, and lowered his voice while leaning forward a bit. "Investigation, you say? Where is the sanctioned Ministry warrant? Show it, and go in."

_Sanctioned Ministry warrant? _Harry too leaned forward and lowered his voice, "We don't have one. You see," he paused and made a show of his subtly turning his head to look around. "It's a delicate matter. Which is why we aren't in uniform. The Minister himself has appointed us for this case."

"Really." He straightened up and glanced at Hermione, "According to the Daily Prophet, she's going to finish her education before starting a job."

_Oh Merlin! This clerk was smart._

Hermione spoke up while Harry's brain worked to come up with a valid explanation. "This is off-records, so a third person was required as witness to the investigation."

"I did not know that was the procedure." The clerk was relentless. However, Harry was not giving up so easily.

"We need information from a Potions Mistress here. She was the apprentice of the person we are investigating. Her name is Penny Haywood. We met just yesterday, but could not speak freely."

The clerk paled slightly. "You want to speak with Master Snape's sole apprentice? I'm sorry; I need to take this up with my superior officers."

Before the trio could stop him, he turned and bolted towards the…supply closet. _At least you do not have to flush yourselves in._

"If this doesn't work out, we might not be allowed a second chance." Hermione voiced Harry's fears.

They waited for ten minutes when a middle-aged man with thinning salt and pepper hair, and horn-rimmed glasses approached them. "Good afternoon. I have been requested to escort you to Master Snape's lab area." He led them to the supply closet. Once inside he pulled out a strange looking card and pressed it against a particular brick. They both glowed dimly before the wall disappeared revealing a landing lit by torches. The man stepped forward and walked straight ahead with the trio following until he reached a staircase.

"Mind your step. Stick close to the wall if you wish." The place looked like a well-decorated version of the Hogwarts dungeons. They made their way down in silence. At the foot of the staircase there was another double door made of some dark wood. It looked unbreakable to Harry. Their escort opened it by muttering some password of sorts and touching it with his wand.

The area on the other side of the door was quite different from the staircase. It was still dungeon-like with stonewalls, but considerably better lit and therefore not as gloomy. The chamber looked remarkably like a reception area. There was a waiting room off to the left side and the right side was dominated by a large semicircular desk, with the area directly in front of them branching into different corridors. The woman behind the desk waved them over. The trio looked to their escort only to see him nod towards the desk.

They made their way to it wondering what they should say. "Um…Hello. I'm Harry Potter, and these are my friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger."

"Pleasure to meet you dears. Now, is it correct that you wish inquire about a recently deceased member of the Guild?" the reception lady was round and cheerful.

"Yes ma'am."

"Is it also true that you met the member's apprentice yesterday?"

"Yes, ma'am. We couldn't talk much yesterday." So far so good.

"Well then, there is only thing I must do to before allowing you entry. I will now personally contact the Potioneer whose name you mentioned to Winston, the clerk upstairs, and see if she does actually know and was expecting you. If she collaborates your claim, you may proceed, if not, the Ministry will be facing serious consequences for the actions of three people who are yet to officially join their jobs." She smiled again, but this one reminded Harry of a shark. He gulped and wondered how he was going to explain this to Kingsley.

"Maybe we should have sent an owl first." Began Ron.

Harry just stared at him. "Too late for that now Ron." Voiced Hermione, "Perhaps we should have thought this out better."

After an agonizing five minutes, the receptionist came back and gave them a sheepish smile. "My sincerest apologies sirs and ma'am. We tightened security after a certain event in '97. You may proceed." She turned to their escort, "Eugene, kindly take them to Master Snape's and Mistress Haywood's lab area. She will be waiting for you."

Harry felt like jumping. It worked! The trio smiled at each other.

Following their escort, Eugene, they made their way down long twisting corridors they could not keep track of. Many doors had plaques on them stating the name of the Potioneer, some had warning such has hazardous materials; others had names such as Meeting Hall, and Hall of Fame written on them. They sharply turned left and stopped in front of the first set of double doors and the plaque outside said:

_Potions Master S.T.K. Snape,_

_R&D (Part-time)_

The plaque was different from the rest; the others Harry had seen were bronze with borders and the writing in black, where as this one was Silver, with an emerald green border and black writing.

_Slytherin colors? _Harry wondered why it was so.

Eugene knocked on the door and stepped back when it swung open revealing a smiling Penny Haywood. "Thank you Mr. Barthes. I will take it from here." She gestured them inside and closed the door as Mr. Eugene Barthes walked away without giving any of them a second glace.

Once the door closed, Penny turned to face them with the most thunderous expression they had ever seen and spoke deliberately as if trying to suppress her anger, "Why are you trying to make me lose my job?"

They dumbly looked at each other, and Hermione began uncertainly, "I'm sorry, I think there has been some misunderstanding. We weren't trying to cost you your job."

Penny's forehead crinkled slightly, "Oh? So you did not show up at the Guild without a visitor's pass or any official document and then say that you wanted to investigate Professor Snape and question me? Did you not also state that I was expecting you, without any proof, resulting in the administration asking me to confirm or deny leading me to unwillingly become an accomplice to your lie and risk my job either way?"

"Well, when you say it that way…" Hermione trailed off.

"There is no other way to say it!" Penny's response was a strangled yell. She threw her hands up and stalked to the desk near the far end of the room in the left corner from the door. Harry took the opportunity to study the room as he turned. The desk Penny seated herself on was made from some dark wood and quite large. It was also completely covered in parchment and various instruments, some of which he recognized from potions class. Next to it were floor to ceiling bookshelves that were positively overflowing, some tomes looked quite old where as some looked nothing more than bound together parchments. The other side of the room had two doors next to each other in the center, with the area closer to them being a sitting area with chairs and a coffee table. The other side was filled with cabinets, extending to Penny's desk, containing various instruments and samples and specimens similar to the ones in Snape's office at Hogwarts. The space in the center of the room had a pillar, which Harry realized was actually a fireplace open on all four sides, surrounded by a rug. The room was impersonal, but cozy and giving the impression of an intellectual.

He looked at Penny and spoke, "How is your job on the line?"

Her head snapped up and she looked at him with a grimace, "Do you really not understand what you have just done?"

Now Harry was losing his patience. "Obviously not. Why don't you just tell me." He could hear Ron and Hermione groan next to him.

Penny frowned, "Watch your tone. What happened to the well-behaved and polite Harry Potter I met yesterday?"

_This is not how I imagined this day going. _First with Ginny and now with Penny. He really did not want to argue with anyone, especially not here and most especially no with the person who had seen Snape outside Hogwarts and in his element.

Before he could start over, there was another knock on the door. Penny gestured them to the coffee table with a silent wave of her hand and went to open the door. Hermione and Ron immediately grabbed him from both sides, dragged him over to a small couch, and pushed him down in the middle sandwiched between them.

Hermione harshly whispered to him, "We used her name to get in without her permission. She has every right to be mad at us."

"Yeah mate, so quit behaving like Malfoy."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, not knowing what he was going to say, when they were hit by a spell. It did not hurt but instead surrounded them like a grey haze that cleared into a light blue and faded away. All three of them were rendered speechless for a moment when they were broken out of it by a cheerful greeting from the person who had entered.

"Hey guys! Sorry about the spell. It was-", Daniel Carter was cut off from a sputtering and indignant Ron who jumped and all but shouted, "Why'd you hex us?! We hadn't done anything!"

Daniel held up his hands and looked over to Penny who was looking at them with a mildly embarrassed expression. "Will you let us explain? Over tea and ginger newts…"

Ron turned to look at Harry and Hermione, who were both as bewildered as him. Hermione, like always was the first one to recover her senses, "Sit down Ron. Please explain."

Daniel and Penny sat across them and Penny called a house-elf to fetch tea and snacks for them, oblivious to Hermione's disapproving look. Daniel however, was not so oblivious; his eyes were flitting between Penny and Hermione with a thoughtful look in them. He glanced at Harry and their eyes met, and an expression of understanding came over his face. He sat up a little straighter, "There's nothing wrong with letting them serve you as long as they want to and its work they are capable and willing to do. It becomes wrong when they do not want to work but you force them to, or when you mistreat them. Don't you agree, Hermione?"

Hermione did not respond but looked vaguely unsettled and slightly suspicious. The tea came up and Ron went for the pumpkin pasties.

"As I was saying, sorry for the spell. It was a standard spell for checking if the person has any sort of influencing or concealment spell or potion on them or not. See, the minute Penny opened the door, she said that you," he pointed at Harry, "were acting very different from how you were yesterday. As a precaution, I decided to check. So, you people want to tell me what's going on? I didn't quite expect to meet you again so soon and certainly not here."

"Only if you teach me that spell." Harry said immediately. It was useful and could come in handy. He ignored Hermione's scowl.

"You'll learn it in Auror training."

"Oh. Alright then." He looked away and busied himself with a cup of tea not knowing what he should say.

"Why don't you guys fill Daniel in on how you got inside? Then we can discuss why you're here in the first place." Penny gently prodded them. Harry nudged Hermione with his elbow. She scowled at him once more before telling them exactly how they received entry. The silence that followed was very uncomfortable. _Definitely should have thought this through. _

"Do you realize that Penny could lose her job for this? The Guild is very strict when it comes to protocols especially regarding entry of non-members. If Penny had not supported your claim, she would have been questioned on why you thought it all right to take her name. And if they figure out that she lied, she will be questioned as to why she did that. Either way the situation is bad." Daniel spoke in a calm and measured tone but there was a light note of disapproval that was making all three of them feel like toddlers.

"It didn't occur to us-" Harry began only to be cut off.

"It didn't occur to you while you thought about what you doing or was it because you didn't think before acting in the first place?" This time there was a slight edge to his voice. A little command saying, _don't lie to me._

Harry didn't. "I should have thought this through." Just like all those other times. _Sirius… _

He jerked his head to dispel the image of his godfather falling through the veil, and looked straight at both of them. "I didn't lie about wanting information on Snape-"

"Professor Snape." Penny chided.

"Right. Anyway, initially we wanted to come see the Guild and ask around about him, but this morning I spoke with Kingsley, and he told me that once things settle down, Professor Snape would get a posthumous trial to get rid of all the doubts surrounding him. So, I am also collecting evidence or witnesses now, just off the record. And we really didn't know that you needed special permission or something to get in." It occurred to him tht Daniel had not mentioned his profession the day before, "Daniel, do you work here too?"

"No. I have an unrestricted visitors pass authorized by Professor Snape himself. He might not be here anymore, but his word still stands."

Penny spoke up, "I can arrange for a temporary one for you three if you want. I could have had them waiting for you with Winston at the post office if you had told me. Even an owl would have done."

Now Harry felt a bit ashamed, he could feel Ron and Hermione shift uncomfortably beside him. Ron spoke up first, "Sorry about all this, it was actually my idea that we come here."

"And I looked up the timings and address but not all the details," finished Hermione.

Daniel and Penny, much to their surprise, started laughing. "Well Ron, it was actually a good idea." he began, "It's just that you guys didn't plan properly, but then again, to you this was a small visit, and such a small visit shouldn't require meticulous planning. Am I right?"

They nodded. He continued with a much sterner tone, slightly narrowed eyes replacing the welcoming smile. "Wrong. You never know how things might go. If you are going to some place you have never been before, you should always speak with someone who has been there before or at least go prepared for the worst-case scenario. This is even more important right now, when there are still plenty of Death Eaters and sympathizers roaming freely."

The trio hung their heads in unison and avoided looking at the two people in front of them. Harry was feeling quite idiotic, and a part of him wanted to jump up and say, that whenever they plan and go somewhere, all hell breaks loose anyway, so what was the point of that? But another part of him kept thinking how things could have been different if he had thought a little more, trusted others a little more and maybe, shared information he had a little more and received the same treatment.

"Come on guys. You three didn't become the heroes of our world by making such rookie mistakes."

They did not respond nor did they look at him.

"Oh Merlin." He was apparently very perceptive. Daniel sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Guys, please tell me you intend to be more careful from now on…"

"We do. We most definitely do. And that's why we're here, to figure out how to." Harry replied to Ron and Hermione's vigorous nodding.

"And how do you intend to do that?" asked Penny.

"Eh…"

"Nevermind. We'll get to that later." Daniel turned to Penny, "Why don't you fill up the forms for their passes today, in case they want to come back sometime." Turning to them he added, "If you guys ever need anything, send me an owl. I'll help you out in any way I can. I _am_ an honorary Weasley you know. I even have a Weasley sweater and a couple of Bill's hand me downs to prove it. Of course, they don't fit me anymore, but the emotion still stands."

Harry was rather surprised at this. He had not known that there were others whom Mr. and Mrs. Weasley considered as part of the family just because they were friends of their children. Now that he thought about it, it made sense why they were so willing to have him. Harry wondered how many more honorary Weasleys were there that he did not know about. He looked at Ron, who had not said anything about Daniel being part of the family, so maybe he did not know?

Penny broke the silence that had followed Daniel's declaration. "You can write down my name as a witness, I have plenty to evidence to support all my claims regarding Professor Snape. Add Daniel's too."

"Could you tell us some things about him? Like how he was outside class and school?" This was what Harry had come here for.

Penny did not respond. She instead continued to drink her tea while looking at the table between them. Harry was about to repeat his question when Daniel discreetly held up a finger while keeping his eyes on Penny. Harry frowned. He put down his cup when his eyes fell upon a notice board. It was on the wall next to the main door, which was why he had not seen it at first. There were not any notices pinned on it. It was a collage of pictures, pieces of parchment, and newspaper clippings. He stood up and stepped towards it to get a better look.

What he saw surprised him. The collage was divided into three parts, on the right side of the board, were photographs of the Hogwarts staff outside of their classrooms. Dumbledore was sitting on a garden bench feeding Fawkes who was perched on his shoulder; McGonagall was lightly smacking Snape in the arm while he ducked his head and pretended to grade papers. Flitwick was standing on a pile of books accepting a few more heavy tomes from Sprout only to fall back and be buried under them in a comical manner that sent the former into hysterics. Hagrid was dragging two students away from a snowball fight but tripping over a log and landing in the snow himself. The old care of magical creatures' professor, Kettleburn was laughing while half a dozen bowtruckles used him as a tree, and Slughorn was standing with his arm around a much younger Snape, with both holding drinks in their hands. There was a prominent one of Professor Sinistra, she was walking down a cobblestone path, with an overcast sky and an umbrella in hand, when she turned and looked straight at the camera with a smile. There was one of Snape blasting Gilderoy Lockhart, and another one of the Bloody Baron floating about the Slytherin common room. The most prominent one was at the bottom- the entire Hogwarts staff standing in unison the same way a Quidditch team or Dumbledore's army had stood. Harry did not recognize some of the faces. He bent down to take a closer look, and noticed that the date on the corner was of '87. Scattered between these photographs were a few extracts from some reports, the most recent being a congratulatory letter to Snape for obtaining high average potions OWL and NEWT scores consistently for ten years, from the years '85-86 to '95-96. The tenth year was their OWL year, i.e., the last year Snape had taught potions.

He glanced at the upper center of the board to see muggle photographs depicting a sturdy man with a hooked nose carefully holding a small dark-haired baby while a sallow-skinned woman smiled at them both. A couple photographs showing just the man and woman, while others were of the boy, between the ages of one to five or six. _Did Tobias and Eileen Snape know that their son was dead? _He made a mental note to check. If they did not, he would personally go and break the news to them. They deserved that much from him. He then turned his attention towards the lower center of the board that was filled with photographs of Lucius Malfoy and Snape as students, young adults and more recent ones, one that seemed to have been taken shortly before Malfoy Sr. was sent to Azkaban. There were some with an older Draco and Narcissa Malfoy present. In some of the photos, a younger Snape was holding a small blond child, Harry guessed to be Draco. The child looked delighted to be in Snape's care. _He really was Snape's favorite. I should speak with them too._

He moved over to look at the left side of the board, ignoring everyone else in the room. This side had photographs and newspaper clippings of certain students. There were several photographs of groups of Slytherins from different years, all with Snape either in the center forcibly being dragged there by the students, or standing off to the side watching them with a grim smile like the one he often wore at Quidditch matches or the leaving feast. _Maybe that was just how he smiled. None of the Slytherins seem to find anything wrong with it. _Harry looked closely at Snape's expression, it was not as stern as usual, his harsh scowl was noticeably absent, and his eyebrows not drawn together. It was perhaps the most relaxed he had ever seen him, which in his opinion was not very relaxed. The rest were random photographs, most were accompanied by a newspaper clippings of young men and women some of whom he recognized as seniors from Hogwarts but did not know the names of, save for two. Penny Haywood and Daniel Carter. Penny's seemed to be taken while she was brewing in a lab, whereas Daniel's was from a newspaper article. It proclaimed him as the Wizarding world's latest hero for taking down some criminal gang, and just below it was a scrap of parchment saying, _'I would have died in the beginning itself if it weren't for you. - DC'. _ This, Harry found very interesting. He skimmed the article but found out nothing other than the claim that Daniel was a 'highly skilled wizard with unparalleled potential and rare talents'.

He turned towards him, "There's something you're not telling me."

Run burst out. "Mate you've been staring at a blank wall for ten minutes!" _huh? _Hermione and Penny were looking worriedly at him too, but Daniel was unperturbed. He tilted his head to the side and said, "There are a lot of things I'm not telling you. Most of them are not your concern or even remotely related to you in any manner. Others are private and not for sharing. Have you never done the same?"

Harry opened his mouth and shut it. He opened it again, "What about the ones that are related to me? Or that might concern me?"

Daniel frowned. "Not everything is about you and I doubt anything from my life would be related to you. I am not obligated to tell you anything, just like you are not. You also have no right to question me like this. Now to what Ron said. It would appear that there is either a selective disillusionment charm, or it is wearing down in such a manner that only certain people can see thorough it." He stood up and waved his wand. Harry could not notice any difference, but the gasps of the other three told him that there had been something hiding the board from view.

But why would Penny hide the board… Penny would not have this board in her office. Snape would. Harry looked back at the board and then around the office. There was an ornate chair to go with the desk but it was pushed to the side of the wall, Penny had sat at the edge of the desk on...he stepped to the side to see, a stool! The scattered parchment and instruments, he stepped closer to the bookshelves, to see that there was affine layer of dust on them. The plaque outside bearing Snape's name…

He turned to Penny, "This isn't your office. It's his." Harry stood in front of the fireplace, in Snape's office.

She turned away from the board and nodded. "He never came back to the Guild after Dumbledore's death. He had left the key in a place only I could find it in. I kept it hidden and only came in the first time in almost a year to clean it out this morning. I request that you not touch anything, until I have gone through with it. As far as I know, all of it is his research." She glanced at the board, "I hadn't known that he had made something like this…"

"You haven't answered my earlier question Penny. What was he really like?" Harry pressed after a moments silence when Ron and Hermione studied the board as well.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Now Harry was confused; he had asked a simple question hadn't he?

Penny had a pained expression on her face, as if it hurt her to answer his question. Daniel on the other hand was looking at him with a slightly exasperated look while slightly holding up his hand as if to say, _what are you doing? Just stop._

Something in Harry's brain clicked. Something that should have been obvious. Not only that, but Kingsley had reminded him this morning. Back at the Burrow, no one was taking Fred's name. In fact, they were collectively trying to avoid mentioning him. Not because they did not want to remember him, but because it hurt too much to remember him. No one could control that grief, so they were pretending that everything was all right, even though it was not.

Penny was doing the same. Moreover, Daniel knew it, which is why he kept trying to stop Harry.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What Penny had told them yesterday were facts, there was not anything personal other than the claim that Snape was a mentor of sorts to her. What Harry had asked today was deeply personal. He glanced at the board. Something told him that Snape had most likely taken most of the photographs himself. He would not stop trying to piece together his life, but he would do it more carefully. He thought about the delighted smile on baby Draco's face. Just because he and most of friends did not like Snape, did not mean that no one else did either. The Slytherins had seemed to worship him at times.

"A sickle for your thoughts? Or are they worth a Galleon?" Daniel was looking at him with a strange smile. Though Harry felt comfortable around him, he didn't quite have faith in his ability to judge people anymore. He would ask Bill and Charlie about him later.

"You can hear them for free." He noticed a mischievous smile flit across his face for moment. Ron and Hermione reluctantly turned from the board. Ron had a dazed look to him while Hermione had a thousand questions look. Penny was seated facing him. "I've found out enough for today. I think we should leave now. And I'm sorry if I caused any trouble today. I promise to send an owl next time and would appreciate if we could get that visitor's pass you were talking about."

"I'll send it to you as soon I get it. Would you like to have lunch before you leave?"

"Yeah that'd be great." At least Ron was normal again.

They had lunch together in the cafeteria, which was quite good. Over lunch, Penny promised to give them a tour of the Guild the next time they came, while Daniel reminded Ron of the dinner invitation. They said their goodbyes and Daniel escorted them outside then apparated away.

On the train back to Llanelli, Hermione broke the silence by saying what was on their minds, "Harry, that board…"

"Yeah. I never would have expected Snape to make something like that."

Ron shook his head. "Mate, those photographs were telling a story. Snape had a life beyond keeping you alive for your mum. I'd say he had a pretty decent one too, if you ignore the fact that he was a double-triple agent for both sides."

Harry thought about what Daniel had said to him, that not everything was about him. It was true. The board was proof of that. From the memories he had seen, it had seemed that his mum had been a very important part of his life. And maybe she had. But there was more to his life than a lost childhood friend. With that board, Harry had received a glimpse into what it was like. It both saddened him and gave him a measure of peace, knowing that were people who would mourn Severus Snape.


	6. The Forgotten Ones

It had been two weeks since the staff meeting and Minerva still was not any closer to finding suitable teachers for muggle studies, Arithmancy, transfiguration, or elementary alchemy. Perhaps the fact that no one was willing to teach at a school that had just been a battleground roughly a month ago had something to do it. She could not even claim that there was no place safer than Hogwarts. No place more dangerous than Hogwarts was more likely to be true, if you excluded the likes of Azkaban and the department of mysteries. She sighed and took off her glasses to rub at her aching glanced out the window of her old office at the courtyard. It looked quite empty without the fountain and with only half the stone arches and pillars. At least there was no rubble and it looked clean. She made a mental note to commend Hagrid and Mr. Filch for that.

She put on her glasses and turned her attention to the numerous letters that Filius had forwarded to her. As was his duty as the school's current deputy, he had sorted out the letters and had only sent the ones worth her attention to her. There were still too many. She took a deep breath and dove in headfirst into the pile. The first one was a long list of complaints from the board of governors regarding the many changes she had decided to make in regards to the curriculum and additions to the school's numerous rules, mainly regarding the consequences of bullying. In short, things that should have been done years ago. Naturally, seeing as Albus had been headmaster for over forty years and had not made a significant change to the way Armando Dippit had run the school for thirty years before him other than abolishing the old corporal punishments, the board was scandalized. She kept the letter aside and made a note to discuss the matter with Kingsley. The one good thing the minister had done in her opinion was make Hogwarts a priority. The resources were scarce but they had the Minister's support, which would help especially when it came to the board.

Harry Potter sent the second letter. The letter was possibly the most polite request she had ever heard from the boy, _young man, _she corrected. The letter began with an inquiry into her well-being and extended to the condition of the castle. The middle paragraph explained his desire and off-the-record task to collect information and evidence on Severus Snape's character and life for his own personal desire to understand the man and his upcoming formal trial. It ended on a hopeful note that also suggested that if she did not wish to speak with him now, he would understand and not disturb her again about this particular matter. She read it again and concluded that even though the handwriting was his, someone more mature, possibly Miss Granger, must have provided the content. Nevertheless, she appreciated the attempt at humility and agreed to meet the boy. She wrote that he could drop by this afternoon if he was free and that she had some matters to discuss with him as well, and sent the letter to the Burrow through the floo network.

The third letter belonged to a concerned muggle parent who wanted to enquire if her child would be allowed to attend to Hogwarts this year. Apparently, the grandfather of the family had been a squib and now his granddaughter had displayed signs of magic, which explained why the parents knew of the magical world's existence and were able to write. However, due to the war, they had been requested by a 'tall wizard dressed in black with pale skin' to not send their daughter lest she be killed. He had apparently promised that she would be allowed to attend once the war was over and put behind them. She carefully folded this letter, kept it in front of her and stared at it.

Severus had met them. There was no doubt about it. She remembered sending out letters to every child whose name had been on the rooster, but almost a third had not been acknowledged, thereby declining admission. Was it possible that the third had all been muggleborn? She had not thought to check then, as there were more urgent matters to deal with. If that were truly the case, then it meant that this girl was not the only one, and that there were several others. If this situation was the standard then it also meant that Severus had promised them all admission once it was safe for them. Unfortunately, Severus was no longer here to fulfill his promise. Nevertheless, she was. And if this is what he had wanted, then she would do it. She was already in the process of going through the records for the upper years who had gone into hiding, but had not thought to check the new admissions. She decided to go through the records for all the years once again to make sure that they did not miss any muggleborn or otherwise who had decided not to attend the previous year.

She picked up a fourth letter, only to discover that she had become incapable of understanding what she was reading. Maybe a walk would do her some good. She ought to check up on the staff as well, especially after yesterday's incident.

* * *

_No skele-grow, barely enough pepper-up, no general healing draughts, and the specialized healing elixirs are too old to be effective. _Poppy Pomfrey was beginning to think that instead of what she needed to run the hospital wing, she ought to send a list what she had and let them give her the rest. On the other hand, she could just write 'everything' on a parchment and submit that. It would be easier. She opened the drawers where she stored the various kinds of bandages and plasters. It was empty. _Why am I surprised at this?_ The battle had depleted all their stores, except for the calming draught and the temporary remedy for cruciatus. They had been taxed throughout the past year, but never empty. Come to think of it, she had not given a list of supplies even once. The stores were always kept stocked by the house-elves. She had been angry and worried about the injuries the students had, and in that anger, she had assumed that Severus kept them stocked because "The Dark Lord has ordered that no magical blood is to be spilt unnecessarily." She had harrumphed at the proclamation and ignored him. Pretending that he did not exist had been easier than acknowledging that the person she thought she knew had turned into a monster's right hand.

Of course, he had never been _his_ right hand. He was instead a brilliant actor who had them all eating out of his hands. It was not even surprising. He had always been good at hiding things. When he was a student, he had cleverly hidden all evidence of his injuries, whether they came from his father or were the result of duels with the Marauders. When he came back as a professor, he hid the injuries he received from his spying. Over the years, he learnt how to hide his inability to keep food down, or to sleep for more than two hours without nightmares. He was always like that, too full of pride to ask for any assistance, no matter how much he needed it. He pretended that he did not care about anything or anyone, yet he was the one to stay up all night with her to treat students or brewing potions for them. He was always the one who stocked the hospital wing's medical stores. She had never dared to place the order with the guild directly after he joined the staff, not after she found out why it was important to him.

Sometimes, when too much destruction had been caused, the only way to assuage yourself was to construct. Even if it was the smallest act, it mattered. Something that you could do in your sleep, something which you loved so passionately, you could lose yourself in it and for the duration, escape from the devastating reality that is life. It's what Severus did when he surrounded himself with bubbling cauldrons instead of people. That was his magic, a bubbling cauldron, controlled but volatile if not handled properly.

"Good morning Poppy. Do you have the list of supplies ready?"

"Good morning Minerva. And yes, I do have the list ready. I need everything."

"Thought so. Have either Aurora or Daniel come to see you yet?"

"No. I didn't expect them to. Mr. Filch did come by though. Tell those two youngsters to see me afterwards, I'm worried after... yesterday's incident."

Yesterday's incident, was a discovery Mrs. Norris made. She refused to move away from a large pile of rubble that was near the back side of the castle. Not knowing what else to do, Mr. Filch fetched the closet people in the castle who turned out to be Daniel and Aurora. They levitated the rocks only to find under them, bodies. Not that they could be called that. It was more of an undefinable pile of bone, flesh and blood with scraps of Hogwarts uniforms. All the three people had ended up in the Hospital wing, with the younger two escaping at their first opportunity.

Minerva had notified the Ministry that they would need some specialists to determine whose bodies they were, and had then spent the next hour vomiting. She shuddered to think about what else they would find under the rubble.

"I'll go check on them." She took her leave and turned her steps towards the astronomy tower, but was stopped by the bloody Baron.

"Headmistress, by your permission, I wish to see to Professor Sinistra's state of mind."

She was reluctant to hand it over to a ghost, but since he had asked, "You may Baron. Inform me if you find anything concerning."

"Always."

* * *

"_Contengo._"

The swirling purple smoke stilled and coalesced into a ball that grew smaller as the seconds ticked by.

"_Finite incantatum!_" An off-white jet of light shot towards it but the smoke ball merely shivered.

A stronger counter curse was required. Daniel paused to gather his strength. This curse was an echo left over from one that would turn the internal organs of the victim into a molten liquid thus killing them from the inside in a slow and torturous manner. He had never heard of such a curse before, which implied that it was either ancient or obscure, or some death eater had invented it. It would be best to use one of the stronger counter curses he had in his arsenal.

He took a deep breath, took his dueler's stance and focused his energy on the spell he would cast.

"_Malus magicae est abiit!_" This time the light that came from his wand was in the form of a silver tinged fog that shrouded the swirling purple fog and entered into its center. The ball pulsed wildly for a moment then abruptly stilled. The purple smoke turned into a dull grey that slowly lightened. Daniel released the containment charm he had placed on it when it was nearly transparent. The smoke faded into the air without any indication that it was ever there.

"Do you go through that lengthy procedure for every curse?" inquired a voice from behind him. He whipped around with his wand raised partway. He lowered it upon seeing whom the voice belonged to.

"No. Usually _finite incantatum _works fine for the echo of spells. Sometimes when the curse itself is truly dark, and cast with extreme malice and power, it resists the general counter curses even in its residual echo. Some even require that their specific counter curses be used. I usually seal them off before trying anything if I feel it's a new curse." He paused. "Professor McGonagall, in my initial sweep of the castle I found some residue to be here for over seven years. Seven is the prime magical number. Those curses are stronger and they are not faded. I might have to construct runic arrays to break them. One of them is sourced at the threshold of the DADA classroom. It's the oldest and strongest one that I found; I think that may be the rumored DADA position curse."

Minerva frowned at this new piece of information. Had Daniel actually located the physical origin of the DADA curse? Also, why had no one noticed it before?

"I'm not surprised that no one noticed it before, you see, I detected all manner of magical concealment charms, kind of like the ones we use on entrances to wizarding areas near muggle settlements. They seem to be fading now. My sweep wouldn't have picked it up otherwise."

_Oh._

She squared her shoulders. "Well Daniel, you have my full permission and support to proceed as you wish. You are also free to call for back up should you desire."

"Yes ma'am." He gave her a mock two-finger salute, one that she remembered from his days as a student.

"Walk with me young man." She turned and proceeded out of the great hall where he had chosen to begin his work. For ten days, Daniel and Filius had used nothing but revealer spells and specialized locator charms to identify where the magical residue remained. Using the information, they gathered, he had proposed an action plan to tackle the issue. The areas that would be the most open to students when the term commenced would be cleared first, and as the repairs progressed, he would work through the rest. Exceptions would be made for sections where significant spell damage occurred or where the lingering dark magic hindered the repairs. Minerva had been most impressed by his orderly work, but not surprised. He had functioned as a student when dealing with the cursed vaults the same way. Identification of the problem, gathering of all available information by all means possible, meticulous planning, and lastly, taking action. Not that his plans were not bordering on reckless and crazy at times, but then again, he _was_ a bold and daring Gryffindor.

An idea occurred to her. "Harry Potter will be coming to meet me soon, perhaps even today. I would appreciate it if you could meet him and share your method of operation with him. He is… well… certainly brave, but-"

"Doesn't look before he leaps?" Daniel had stopped walking and had his arms crossed in front of him.

"Essentially. I hadn't known his impulsivity was common knowledge."

Daniel broke in before she could continue, "As far as I know, it isn't. I've met him twice quite recently." He bit his lip for a moment before continuing. "I'm sort of disappointed. From what I had heard, he seemed like this great hero who always had a plan to get out of whatever fix he got into. Now that I have met him, I can see that he is not very cautious, seems lucky though. Makes you wonder how he defeated You-know-who so young."

Minerva looked off to the side, to one of the glassless windows. It had become apparent to her that in recent weeks, her usual will had greatly diminished. A part of her wanted to defend Harry as she had done so many times before, but a more pressing voice seemed to say, _what difference would it make?_ It was not as if Daniel had said anything that was not true. She took a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke. "He has talents, and quite a lot of potential. Someday, he will make a fine wizard I should say. As for his victory, though he had people assisting all the way, in the end, he stood alone against Voldemort and cast the final spell."

Daniel inclined his head in acknowledgement and said, "I'm surprised that Professor Snape didn't knock some sense into him. He was always after me."

"The circumstances were different. Well, not so much, but the stakes were higher and there were various other factors at play." _Namely Severus's complex relationship with Harry's parents, his role as a double agent, and Harry's own disrespect for him. Severus's hostility played a major role as well. _

"Severus praised you occasionally; I believe you were among his favored students."

Daniel smiled sagely and looked to somewhere beyond her head, "I had an O in my Potions OWL and NEWT, Professor. I was a good student; mum would have disowned me if I were not. I didn't do anything specific, if that's what you're asking."

Minerva felt that he was leaving something out, but realized that it was not her place to pry.

He turned back to her. "I do not think it would be a good idea for Harry to discuss his method of operation with me. He's somewhat distrustful of me. I can't imagine why."

Minerva nodded and dropped the matter for now; she would bring it up with Harry himself. "I wanted to ask, are you alright?"

She should not have been so blunt, though for the life of her she could not imagine how the question could have been phrased differently. Daniel's expression became closed off and guarded. The same way Severus would close himself off… was this ability what endeared Severus to Daniel?

"I do not wish to speak about yesterday's incident ma'am." There was a note of finality in his voice. One that told her further attempts at questioning would not be appreciated. Though she was worried, Minerva decided to wait until a more opportune moment. She would speak with Poppy instead and then check up on Aurora afterwards.

"Very well, but do remember that it does not do to bottle up emotions. I will be available whenever you should require."

"Duly noted." Still expressionless. Minerva nodded and left towards the infirmary.

Daniel watched her leave and wondered what Rowan would say about his reluctance to talk. Probably yell at him for 'suppressing his emotions in an unhealthy manner' and then proceed to get him to talk about it. He loved his mum and Penny, and adored each of his friends, but Rowan was the only one whom he allowed to know what he was really feeling. He had kept walls around his emotions for as long as he could remember, and focused on the problems and feelings of others around him to avoid his own. It was quite a useful skill in his opinion though Rowan heavily disagreed. This ability to compartmentalize was the only reason he had learnt occlumency successfully.

"…_a woman bearing a striking resemblance to you, your mother, crying for her missing son…"_

"_GET OUT!" A stone floor appeared in front of his eyes as the memory faded. He was on his hands and knees and breathing heavily. "That's private."_

"_Not to me and most certainly not to the one entering your mind and placing images in it." As usual, Snape's voice was cold and barely above a whisper. He continued, "You made barely any progress in the past one hour, but were able to throw me out of your mind the moment I latched on to that memory."_

_Daniel had gotten to his feet now and was wondering where this was going. No way in hell was he discussing his memories with his professor. Or anyone else for that matter. Why did they have to discuss them anyway? He was fine. _

"_That memory was behind a curtain."_

"_Huh?"_

_Snape's eyes narrowed. "Hmm." He gestured to his desk, "Take a seat."_

_They sat down on opposite sides of his desk. He folded his fingers and rested his chin on them before saying anything else. "Judging by your reaction, I presume that you were unaware of employing occlumency. You might be a natural born legilimens like your brother, but rarely are the two skills inherent."_

_He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He did not like where this conversation was going. _

"_Carter, are you even aware of what you did?" Snape was sounding annoyed now, not that it was anything new. _

_Perhaps an attempt at pacifying the man in front of him would help. "Was it wrong, sir?" he tried to put as much respect as he could in that inquiry. _

_Was it a trick of the light or did Snape just smile? "No Carter. For once you actually did something correctly." _

_Daniel was tempted to point out that he rarely botched his potions, but chose to hold his tongue lest he be slapped with detention. _

"_Now the task is to repeat it."_

"_How?"_

"_That is the question isn't it?" Snape was definitely annoyed again. "What was it about that particular memory that you wanted to keep hidden?"_

"_It's private sir. I didn't like it that you were able to see it."_

"_You did not feel the same way about the other memories? The ones that contained your brother and you playing? You had no such response when I accessed the memories regarding your exploits in your third year with the boggart infestation. Why this one then?"_

_Daniel was beginning to understand why. He just wasn't going to say it. He continued to stare at the table while Snape attempted to drill holes into his head with that borderline terrifying stare of his. Surprisingly, Snape was the first to cave. He muttered something about Merlin and stubborn children, before speaking to him. _

"_In the beginning of the lesson, I told you that repelling mental attacks were similar to throwing off an imperius curse or resisting a confoundus charm. Do you recall?" Daniel nodded. "Since you have no experience in either of those, you did not understand. This memory Carter could be the key. You subconsciously created a mental block in front of the memory. And when I broke through that block, something that was pathetically simple, you were promptly able to throw me out with sheer force of will despite miserably failing for the past hour. Now, to recreate that, we need to be clear on what exactly happened."_

_Daniel weighed his options. So far, he had been unable to make any progress. He hadn't even realized that he had thrown off the mental attack. The faster he learnt occlumency, the sooner he could end these lessons and get back to looking for Jacob. It was too dangerous for everyone around him as long as someone was able to access his mind at will. The prospect of being driven mad because of it was not appealing either. However, sharing his thoughts on the matter with his potion's professor and current occlumency instructor was not on his to do list. What choice did he have though? He really needed to learn occlumency, and if this was the only way…_

"_Do you remember that rogue dementer we had last year professor?"_

_Snape scowled at him. "The one you foolishly decided to confront despite being told not to? Yes, I remember."_

"_Yeah, well… the memory you saw… it…it was the same one the dementer made me see. It's my worst memory."_

"_I see."_

_There was silence and Daniel wondered where they would go from here. Perhaps he should excuse himself and leave. _

"_You wish to keep whatever thoughts and emotions associated with that memory secret, am I correct?" It was more of a statement than question. He did not answer. "To an extent, even from yourself. And that's why there was a flimsy mental curtain over it."_

_That was one day Daniel had wanted to forget, even before the dementer had proven it his worst. "I understand what I need to do, sir."_

"_Dismissed. Practice clearing your mind."_

The key had been the desire to keep that memory hidden, to pretend that it did not exist. All he had to do was believe the same for all his memories. His thoughts, memories and emotions were his and his alone. He did not want anyone to know about them, and so, they were not allowed to enter. Additionally, he did not want to dwell on those dark and depressing thoughts, and thus he locked them in chests at the bottom of the ocean that was his mind. Over the next two months, Daniel had sufficiently mastered occlumency to resume his search for Jacob and progressed on to honing his inherited ability of legilimency. For years, these two skills had aided him greatly, even saved his life on occasion, something he would forever be grateful to Snape for. As time passed, from mutual dislike, they had come to respect each other's talents, somewhere along the way, somehow, they came to respect, and dare he say it, like each other as people.

_Ironic,_ Daniel thought. The one man everyone had thought incapable of empathy, had understood the most. Everyone thought that he would be the first to kill, but he had been the last one keeping them alive.

Unbeknownst to Daniel, Severus Snape had looked at him and at first, seen a reckless boy with no regard for anyone but himself. So very like several Gryffindors, he had known, including Daniel's own brother Jacob. Only for him to be slowly and steadily be proven wrong. For as the days and dangers went past, he saw that Daniel, so willing to take responsibility for his actions and face the consequences, was different. A victim of rumors, and largely disliked since the moment he stepped into the castle, he ploughed on, unwilling to yield to anyone. Nevertheless, what truly endeared him to Severus was his unconditional acceptance and thoughtful demeanor. He was among the few students who understood that there was more to him than what he showed them. That boy had looked beyond his scathing sarcasm and seen not a caricature of an ill-tempered vampire, but a person. A person, who could be approached for advice, who could be trusted to help him, a person who was worth knowing outside of class.

For that, he had attempted to assist him whenever possible, even going so far as to promising to locate Rakepick after her betrayal. When the final vault had been opened, and Dumbledore had asked the four heads their opinions on Carter to decide whether to expel him or not, he had defended him saying that a well-rounded student did not deserve to be expelled. Everyone had been surprised, for Severus rarely called anyone competent in any aspect let alone all. However, Daniel Carter had rightfully earned Severus's esteem.

* * *

"You never thanked me for being the cause of your first meeting."

Aurora turned around and faced the source of the voice. "What do you speak of Baron?"

The anti-social ghost came to float directly in front of her. He looked her in the eye, "May I take his name?"

She turned away and looked towards the mountains that encased the valley. "His name isn't a taboo."

"Nay. However, are you prepared to hear it? Or to say it yourself?"

She should have been gratified by everyone's thoughtfulness. No one was taking his name, but everyone's grief was apparent in some manner. Of course, it could be more out of not knowing what to say. As if, it was just his death that had happened. What about his life? He had been alive, hadn't he? Maybe not all the time, maybe not in the horrible last year, but she knew, she had seen life in his eyes. They might as well have been the night sky for the way they glittered and shined at times.

"Severus. There, I said his name. You can say it too." The Bloody Baron looked at her for what could have been seconds but felt like hours. She wondered what he was trying to find.

Then he spoke, in a tone that made her feel as if she was his granddaughter listening to tales of knights in shining armor. "I had summoned him just as you ran off. I had thought that between the two of us, we could find you by morning. The dungeons are quite large you see. Yet, as soon as he stepped out, he found you. Perhaps you were destined to meet each other that night."

It had been on the 22nd of December in 1974 that Aurora Sinistra had first met Severus Snape. Their House Ghost, The Bloody Baron was responsible for that.

She had transferred from Uagadou just two months ago after her mother's demise. Her English was not that good and she had a slight accent that was quite prominent compared to the posh manner most of the students in her house spoke in. The moment the Sorting Hat touched her head, in the Headmaster's office, it had shouted Slytherin. Aurora had found the house system rather bizarre but had wisely kept her mouth shut. Professor Slughorn had led her to the common room and then not bothered to check up on her ever again. She had promptly become an outcast in the school because of her house, and an outcast in her house because of her half-blood status and different upbringing. To counteract the loneliness, she had started spending time all of her free time in the library.

One night, just after the train had left for London to take the students home for the Christmas holidays, she had chosen to skip dinner and spend her time there. She did not have a home she could return to; her father was a traveler who had hoped that his muggle wife in their hometown would raise his daughter until adulthood. Fate had ruined his plans and now Aurora was stuck in a strange and hostile country, with no place to call home, and no one to share her grief with. Lost in these thoughts, she made her way to the Slytherin dorms that were located in the cold and uninviting dungeons, when she realized that she was lost. She looked to around to see if she could recognize where she was, when he appeared, the Bloody Baron and frightened her out of her wits.

_She had heard rumors of their house ghost being covered in blood and being terrifying, but she had yet to see him. Now she had. He had materialized in front of her and had opened his mouth to say something when she screamed loud enough to put a banshee to shame and run faster than a cheetah in the opposite direction. Two corridors down, her foot caught on a stone and sent her flying across the floor. She propped herself against the wall and looked over the scrapes she received in the fall. She wondered if this was where she would spend the night. _

_That was when he decided to make an appearance. All gangly limbs and awkwardness, with a walk that resembled a spider, and complexion of a vampire, topped with a black curtain that barely passed for hair if you squinted, he came up to her, and said, "I'm pretty sure you woke up some dead. The common room is just around the corner. Do you need any help getting to it?"_

_In a single breath, he had added insult to injury and offered help. It was the first time since she had come to Hogwarts that someone offered her help, so she decided to ignore his jab and meekly nodded her head._

_He whipped out his wand and gathered her books with one swish, then stepped closer and extended his hand to her. Taking it, she found it surprisingly warm and comforting. Without saying a word, he supported her weight and once inside, helped her get settled in an armchair by the fireplace. Following which he promptly ran upstairs to his dorm, just when she began to wonder why he had left so abruptly, he came back and handed her a jar. _

"_Essence of Murtlap. For the scrapes." He answered her unasked question, gesturing to her skinned knee. "I thought I was the only one who decided to stay back this year." There was a mild curiosity to his tone._

"_I skipped in the library for dinner." That did not sound right. _

_He however, gave no indication of her improper grammar. "You skipped dinner and went to the library instead?" _

_She nodded. Best not to humiliate yourself further by speaking Rora._

"_Well, I didn't have dinner either. I was just about to head out to the kitchen…eh…you want something?"_

_She nodded, "Sure. Thank you." He made a dismissive gesture with his hand and stalked away without a word. He came back, carrying a tray filled with food._

_He shrugged at her confused expression saying, "I figured you'd be hungry."_

_Not knowing what else to do, she started eating, while he settled himself on the couch with a book and while eating a sandwich. When she was halfway done with her meal, he spoke up. _

"_I know that we are in the same year, but I don't know your name."_

_For the first time since her mother's murder, Aurora felt some faith in the goodness of humanity. This boy, who had helped her back to the common room, who gave her a salve for her injury and brought dinner for her, hadn't even known her name, let alone anything about what had happened to her before or after she came here. He had taken one look at her and given assistance in every way he could. _

_Helping those you know is a duty, but helping those you do not know, is humanity, her mother had often said. _

_She told him her name, and revealed to him that she hated it at its Hogwarts. He replied that he did too at times because of certain people. They had talked long into the night and towards the end, he had offered help in her studies and recommended a bit of literature she could read for improving her English. The next morning, keeping a firm grip on her hand to stop her from running away, he introduced her to the Bloody Baron. _

He had earned her life-long respect that night. "He wasn't some knight in shining armor. He was a just like me. Never fitting in, another forgotten one. Not important enough to be remembered or looked after, just left to fall into the cracks. So, we connected. We looked out for each other from time to time."

"Is that why you gave him your love?"

She couldn't help it. She laughed. A full and true laugh after a long time. She had certainly felt indignant at the treatment he received at the hands of the Marauders, and had felt his pain as keenly as if it were her own when they had come together as adults… but feeling sorry for him? Sometimes, but that wasn't reason enough to love him. She wasn't a selfless saint offering her love and concern to whomever seemed to be in need for some. "No Baron. That never even played into it."

"Then why, m'lady?"

"He was Severus Snape. The one and only. Once I began to find out who that truly was, it was reason enough." She pushed back from the parapet she was leaning against and went over to the battered remains of her central telescope to salvage whatever parts she could.

* * *

It was that window. The window Severus threw himself out of. How absurd was the fact that despite the castle looking like a pile of rock just thrown together this classroom and this window was as it was before the battle? It was here to simply mock her. To remind her of her failure as a friend. He had tried to tell her. Filius was right. He had left clues wherever he could. Till that night he kept waiting, hoping that someone would understand. That they hadn't all abandoned him. The biggest clue was for her. A recreation of a moment between them. A sign only she could have recognized. What had she done though? Thrown daggers at him, intending to kill him. She had truly wanted him dead, and had been perfectly happy to do it. Why? Because she thought him evil to his very core. She, who had once told him that she believed him to be a good person.

_Potter walked away without another word while Malfoy stood sputtering. _

"_Are you just going to let him get away with that?", without Potter, and lacking the courage to confront her, his head of house became a target for his ire. _

"_Watch your tone Mr. Malfoy. You heard what Professor McGonagall said, either go outside or go your common room." _

"_You'll pay for this." _

_Alright, now that was a bit too much. She had just come back from St. Mungo's. She didn't need to deal with this. "Mr. Malfoy! That is enough. Go inside."_

_The boy gave her one last glare and then left. Severus and she stared at each other in silence. He was expressionless, which meant he was occluding. He had been doing that a lot recently. Now that the Ministry had admitted that he was back, she suspected Severus would be doing that all the more often. _

"_You were too lenient on Potter-" "He has just lost his Godfather, he deserved it. The least you can do is not celebrate Black's death in front of him."_

_He pursed his lips, "I was not celebrating, and had no intention do so either. Don't get me wrong, I hated that mutt, but he was a member of the Order and Potter listened to him, and even though he was completely useless in my opinion, unlike him with regards to myself, I never wanted him dead."_

_She was immediately reminded of when a drunk and concussed Severus had revealed just about two years ago about how Black nearly killed him using Lupin as a tool. It was then that she had finally found out the truth about the Shack incident in the boys' fifth year. All her intentions of ripping him a new skin for outing Lupin's secret had flown out the window. They stared at each other in silence. _

"_Let me walk you to your quarters." She let nodded and took his arm. Her chambers were on the fifth floor, she couldn't make it their all by herself even if she wanted to. They walked in silence till the second floor, when Severus began speaking. _

"_When you ended up in St. Mungo's, I thought that everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong. Less than 24 hours later I found myself standing in Umbitch's office lying through my teeth to protect Potter and get out of there as soon as possible to contact the Order."_

"_Umbitch? How old are you, twelve?"_

"_On the contrary, I shall be going either bald or grey by Christmas. Assuming I live that long." _

_She didn't comment on it. His position was a precarious, one that was made even more dangerous by the fact that it was somewhat of an open secret. Although there was one thing, she wanted to ask him. _

"_Albus informed me of what happened, but he didn't explain how you knew it was a trap."_

_He froze on the landing. She let go of his arm and stepped in front of him. She repeated the question. He made no sound, but only a single movement. A jerk of his left forearm. _

She had grabbed his arm and told him that the mark didn't define him. That she knew he was a good person, that it was a mistake he made when younger, one that he was risking his life every minute to make up for. That no matter what anyone said, she was with him, that he could come to her at any time and she would do all that she could to help him.

In the end, those words were just that, mere words. Words that he, till the end held onto with hope, that they would be true. That jerk of his arm, made when he thought they were alone, it was just for her. A request, a question, _do you remember? _He had tried to explain. She would never know what he was going to say. If only she had controlled herself for a few more minutes. She had held off hexing him for almost a year, and by that point she had snapped. Maybe he had realized it, which was why instead of fighting back, defeating her and making her listen, he had left.

The unfairness of it all, the tragedy their relationship had become, it made her angry. It was a rage without direction, one that boiled her blood. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the window. The blasting curse felt unsatisfactory, she wanted to see it be slowly destroyed.

"_Deletrius." _The eradication charm. Before her eyes, the window and the surrounding stone wall dissipated into mist and faded from existence.

If only all the pain could fade away so easily.

* * *

Harry arrived at Hogwarts ground sometime around noon. The hot sun was just over head. He'd been surprised to receive a reply from Professor McGonagall so soon. It had taken him over a week to write a letter to her. Hermione had given him hell when he asked her for help. In the end, it was Bill who sat him down and lectured him about how exactly to be considerate towards the feelings of others. His emphasis was on putting himself aside and focusing solely on what the other was feeling or saying whether he liked it or not. Of course, Bill's reason for giving him advice was related more to his fight with Ginny than anything else, but it had been welcome guidance. It had helped too. Since he couldn't figure out why Ginny had been angry at hearing Snape's name, he decided to outright ask her if she wanted to tell him. As it turned out, Snape had helped her when they Carrows had tortured her, but she had in her anger verbally lashed out at him calling him all manner of unrepeatable names and finally concluding her tirade with a wish that he be 'eaten by Voldypants giant snake'. 'It's not your fault' was all he could say to her. In truth, he wanted to slam his head into a wall. How many times had he wished Snape dead?

It got him thinking though. Whose fault was it though? Was it Riddle's because he was the one who ordered Snape's death, or Dumbledore's who planned to give Snape the elder wand? If they wanted to blame the moment it all started, they could blame it on Snape himself for ever conveying that prophecy, or go further back and blame Merope Gaunt forever giving birth to that psychopath in the first place. Thinking about this made Harry realize that there was plenty of blame to go around and even more people to give it to. Who would it help though? Blame wasn't bringing anyone back. What was done, was done. They had to go forward. There wasn't anywhere else to go. This was also the reason he had decided (once again) to not return to Hogwarts for his final year and instead join the Auror corps. _Move forward._

Nearly Headless Nick was gracious enough to tell him where he had last seen Professor McGonagall, he found her staring at a hole in the wall. "Wasn't this the same classroom from which Snape had thrown himself out the window?"

She turned to him and levelled her sternest look on him. "Professor Snape, Mr. Potter. You have been told that often enough and are old enough to remember it."

He was a bit taken aback by her reaction. "You're right. I'm sorry. Now, can I write down your name in my witness list?"

"You may, and I will forward you a list of others from the Hogwarts staff who may wish to testify."

"Great. Can we go see Dumbledore's portrait now?"

Professor McGonagall's lips thinned and without warning she started walking away. Harry stood there for a moment before jogging up to her.

"Professor?"

She exhaled out her nose. "Portraits are not considered reliable witnesses by the Wizengamot's laws. The portraits of Hogwarts even less so as they are bound to obey the instructions given to them by the person who occupies the Head's office."

"But his portrait gave Sna- Professor Snape instructions-"

"I know exactly what it did. Regardless, those are the laws and as a soon to be Auror, your foremost duty is to uphold them. Whether you like it or not, or find them inconvenient, is irrelevant."

_Was this she wanted to talk about? His duties as an Auror? _Kingsley had already promised to give him and Ron a _talk _about their duties and what would be expected of them once he found the time. He had been quite furious when they told him how they got into the Guild.

"I understand ma'am. But I would still like to go to the office, maybe there is some proof Dumbledore left behind, or something in Professor Snape's own belongings."

They had reached the staircase by now, but McGonagall had stopped. She turned to face him fully. "Mr. Potter, I cannot allow you to do that."

"Why not?"

"I cannot tell you that if you keep interrupting."

He felt his cheeks go warm. Why was everyone he knew treating him like an idiot ever since the war had ended? He wasn't as smart as Hermione, but he wasn't stupid either.

"Due to time constraints, I have yet to clear out the Head's office, so I cannot allow you to enter. Severus's belongings are to be dealt with in the manner prescribed in his last will - and I know he made one when the war began, so I cannot in good conscience allow you access to them either. As for Dumbledore's portrait, he is yet to give me a detailed account of what happened, so until he does, I can and will restrict anyone from having access to him. I have sufficient reasons for doing that, the most important being that due to his various plans, the school's reputation is precarious. If the public becomes aware of his 'for the greater good' motivation by way of his portrait's statements, I fear the backlash to the school will be severe. As it is, I'm having trouble hiring teachers. As the Headmistress, I must put the school and its member, both instructors and students, above everything else."

"I... understand. What else did you want to discuss with me?"

"Your impulsive tendencies. Luck does not last forever Mr. Potter. Surely you must realize that by now? You have survived and have been successful despite all odds, but that may not always be the case. You need to think before you act, not just from your end, but from the others perspective as well. James was brave in sacrificing his life to give Lily and you time, but he would have had a greater chance at surviving if he had kept his wand on him."

"How do you know he didn't have his wand on him? And they were under the fidelus, he didn't have to worry!"

"Mr. Potter I was informed about what state they found the bodies in. And fidelus or not, a war was going on and he knew that his family was being targeted. It's a common precaution. Despite what Dumbledore led you to believe, this war was greater than just you or Riddle. If it concerned just you two then it wouldn't have been a war, it would have been a rivalry. The last stand came down to you two, but war began before you were even born between those who believed in blood purity, the use of Dark magic, and outdated traditions and privileges and those who didn't."

"You mean the Slytherins and the rest?"

She blinked at him. "Mr. Potter, over half the Death Eaters in the first war were Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."

"What?!"

She nodded, "The Ravenclaws believed that no form of Magic should be banned by the Ministry, the blanket-ban imposed on obscure forms of magic simply because they 'could' be used for harm was unbearable to them. Many ancient magics can be used for healing, but they involve rituals and are far more time and energy consuming than the modern spells. Many ancient alchemic transfigurations have been banned because they fall under the classification of Dark magic by ministry standards, but are actually harmless if done correctly. The Hufflepuffs who sympathized disagreed with the ministry policies relating to the creatures such as centaurs and house-elves, and other inequalities in our administrative machineries. The Slytherin's protested against the loss of our ancient wizarding traditions and what they called 'too rapid' adaptation of muggle culture. There was even a segment of Gryffindor's who was supported them initially. They wanted the statute of secrecy abolished so that they could practice magic freely."

"I don't believe it. No one ever told me that! How did they start following Tom then?"

"Riddle promised change and betterment of our society to these people. He promised to fix all that was wrong in our society and most of his initiatives were valid. It started as a political movement that slowly grew more and more violent, until, before we knew it, we had a civil war on our hands. As violence increased, many people left them, but soon died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One of Riddle's initial strongholds, was a magical village named Circe's Creek, near the outskirts of Bristol. Most of those people were peaceful and the mayor withdrew his support from Riddle's campaign via an announcement in the Daily Prophet when the reports of violence became too much to ignore. The entire village was destroyed that night, and for the first time the Dark Mark was seen in the sky. That was when the Great Wizarding War started. I believe it was around that time that your parents would have been getting ready for Hogwarts."

Harry was stunned. Riddle took the grievances of people, and used them to get support for his own quest for power. People thought they were fighting for the future of the Wizarding world, but it was all just lies.

"Professor, after the war ended, did the ministry do anything about those people's wishes?"

She looked away. "If only. The war was over, and the losing side was forgotten about."


	7. One and The Same

**Author's note: To all my readers, I'm not dead yet! Hope you're still here reading this! A lot of people have asked me what the deal with Daniel Carter is, so here you go. In this chapter, our master spy has taken on a background role.**

* * *

"History tends to be quite different from what we would like it to be. I'm surprised that you didn't know all this. Dumbledore had said he would tell you about the origins of the war after that fiasco in the Department of Mysteries. And I do remember you being called to his office a few times in your sixth year."

Harry blew on the steaming cup of tea before taking a sip. "Well, he did tell me some history. He told me where Riddle came from and what he was like, and how he started acquiring objects to turn into Horcruxes."

McGonagall sighed and rubbed her eyes under her glasses. "Dumbledore told you the personal history of the person whom you had to go against, but not about anything else?"

"No, ma'am."

"I'm going to crucify that portrait."

"Can that wait until I'm done questioning him... err... it?"

She stared at him. Harry munched on another ginger newt. From the Grand Staircase to her office, McGonagall had been muttering about Dumbledore keeping everyone in the dark, and how she now had another task to finish. Something about cleaning up his messes. He'd started asking questions about the First War when she told him to shut up, come to her office, sit and listen. He didn't quite mind doing that. He noted that there was a great change in her personality since the war ended, but he supposed that was to be expected. It kept him from wondering how much the prophecy had been true and how much Dumbledore made it true.

"If you want to know in detail about the way Voldemort recruited followers and kept them in line, especially Severus's recruitment, I suggest you question Lucius Malfoy."

Harry remembered the Prefect Malfoy welcoming a young Snape to the Slytherin House table. "He was the one who recruited Snape wasn't he?"

"Yes and no. Contact him. I never liked the man but he was always a good friend to Severus."

"Good friends don't hand you over to madmen bent on world domination!"

"He didn't hand over Severus to him, at least not in the way you're thinking. Back to the matter at hand, what was I telling you about? ah yes. The origins of the First War. The origins of the First Voldemort War go back to the Grindelwald War."

"What?!"

"Yes. That war ended in 1945, the same year Riddle graduated from Hogwarts. I graduated the year after that- "

"You went to school with him?!"

"Unfortunately, yes, and stop interrupting Mr. Potter. The environment of the school was torn between those who agreed with his policies and those who didn't. Grindelwald's agenda was locating the fabled Deathly Hallows, and his war propaganda was the removal of the International Statute of Secrecy so that Witches and Wizards could roam freely as they once used to. While it was never proven, various wizarding governments speculate that certain leaders of the Nazi party, possibly Hitler himself, were under the imperious curse or otherwise influenced. I trust you know about the Muggle version of that War? Good then. Riddle used the same technique. His propaganda was selfless and for the betterment for our society, under whose guise he went on his quest for immortality. Thankfully, unlike Grindelwald, he wasn't able to gather much support in other countries. His idea was to first gain complete control of Wizarding Britain and from there, move onto the rest of the world. Had that happened, we could have quite possibly had another Muggle war alongside a Wizarding one."

Here she grew quieter. "He came close to succeeding. The Ministry was slow to respond, and the Order was outnumbered twenty to one-" Harry's hand gave a jolt and he spilled the tea on the desk. McGonagall paused in her explanation and cleared away the mess with a flick of her wand. "Are you alright, Harry?"

He nodded. This was possibly the most interesting history lesson he'd ever gotten. Hermione would love it.

"As I was saying… The war was almost lost, raids kept happening one after the other and we couldn't do anything to protect anyone." Her eyes took on a faraway look. "Then one day, out of the blue, Albus said he had found a spy in the opposite camp. We weren't sure if the information we received could be trusted, but we didn't have any other options. The worst that could happen was that the Order would walk into a trap. With the way things were going, almost everyone was ready to take the risk. Six months later, the Order had the Death Eaters scrambling to protect themselves. There seemed to be a fighting chance, that given enough time, we could end the war in our favor." Here she paused again. After a moment her eyes focused on Harry's with sharpness and clarity. "You said that you wanted to discover who Severus Snape was. He was the man who singlehandedly turned the tables in the first war."

"All because he loved my mum," Harry whispered.

"I believe it was a bit more that. She was the last drink that sent him under the table. He would have defected eventually."

"His Patronus was the same as Mum's, a doe like mine's my Dad's animagus form, a Stag."

She frowned at him. "A doe? How curious. I saw Severus's Patronus the year we had dementers at the school. It was a Panther then. Suited him quite nicely too."

"A Panther?"

"A solitary and stealthy attacker, incredibly intelligent and cunning, symbolizes strength, raw power, courage, and grace. They're nocturnal; often called the 'ghost of the forest', usually quiet but very aggressive. And even Sybil could tell you that in the magical point of view they're regarded as territorial and fierce guardians for outcasts, wayward people, and orphans."

"Orphans, you say? It fits. Really well actually. I wonder why it changed though. You can check the memories in the pensive, his Patronus was a doe. He even sent it to me when he brought the Sword of Gryffindor to the Forest of Dean."

"I will when I finally clear out the office."

They sat in silence for some time. "How do you know so much about him?"

"I know because I knew him when he was a student. Because I knew the man, he grew up to be. I know because he was my friend, and… I failed him."

* * *

Harry and McGonagall were sitting down for lunch in the Great Hall when Harry saw him again.

"Are you following me?" Was his greeting.

"I should be the one asking that." Was the response.

"What are you doing here?"

"Again. I should be the one asking that."

Then simultaneously they turned to the mute and rather amused spectator and asked in unison, one voice tired and the other slightly annoyed, "What's he doing here?"

This was enough to get the spectator to break her vow of silence with a bout of laughter. She spoke once her breath had been regained. "Daniel dear, please take a seat." Turning to an annoyed Harry, she continued, "Harry, I request that you treat my teaching staff with proper respect and courtesy."

Harry turned his eyes to the now seated said professor. "Teaching staff? I thought you said you were a curse breaker?"

"I am a curse breaker. After seeing you off to the train station I apparated here and accepted the job for DADA professor. Oh, and I'm also the new Head of Gryffindor. As for your earlier questions… You still don't have the right to question me like that. But I'll answer just to prove that I'm not following you. I'd known Tonks for nearly fourteen years, so I had every right to be there; I've been visiting the guild for seven years, with proper permission and Penny is… my… I mean we're… well…" he cleared his throat and went on, "And lastly, this is my place of work and now my residence for the most part of the year." He smiled now, "What about you? Planning to come back to school?"

"No. I'm not coming back. I'll be joining the Auror corps in September. And… sorry about the questions. I just didn't expect to see you here. I… uh… hope you last more than a year."

Daniel laughed at that. "You and me both."

McGonagall decided that now would be a good time to play friend maker between the two. Daniel could benefit from Harry's resilience and Harry could learn patience from the other. "My two most troublesome lions in recent years. With you two together, I'm sure to go grew by the end of the day."

"Not if we follow the rules." Daniel winked at him.

"Is that possible?"

Harry laughed. "If it's any comfort, Kingsley's been giving me hell about rules and regulations too. He's promised me and Ron a 'talk' once he digs himself out of paperwork."

Daniel asked in a rather odd sounding tone of voice, "Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister of Magic?"

"Yeah. You know him?"

Daniel stood up, "More or less. Glad to hear he's doing well. If you'll excuse me." This time, Harry detected no sincerity in his voice. If anything, he sounded bitter.

He turned to McGonagall and got the distinct impression she knew exactly what this was about. He waited until they were halfway through their meal.

"I read a newspaper clipping that claimed Daniel was a hero for taking down some criminal gang."

Her fork paused midway to her mouth. She laid it down on the plate. "It was a lot more than that. He saved Hogwarts from the Cursed Vaults by breaking the curses each year. He nearly lost his life and was almost expelled as well. The Ministry even kept him in custody at the end of his sixth year. He was of- age by then so we couldn't do anything. Kingsley was the one who took him in. Ultimately, Dumbledore could justify not expelling him because he was among the top students of his class and had prevented the death of more than two dozen Hogwarts residents each year. He's been out of the country since his graduation, traveling all over Eastern Europe." She picked up her fork and started eating again. Harry mulled over what she had said. _So, he's saved Hogwarts as a student but got into trouble with the Ministry. And he likes Kingsley about as much I liked Fudge, not that I can blame him. _

It was some time before she spoke again. "Let me tell you about an incident in his third year. Due to his involvement with the Cursed Vaults the previous year, the professors decided that it would be best if he were not allowed to go to Hogsmeade."

"But he snuck out anyway?" It's what Harry had done.

"The thought didn't even occur to him. He argued a bit when I told him, but then calmed down and left. Two days later he approached me and asked if there was anything, he could do to change our decision. After much discussion, we decided that if he could prove to us that was sincere in his studies -he had barely managed to pass his second year- that we would consider it. In the next exams, he scored either an O or at least an E in each subject, practical and theory. Even Severus, the miser with praise and points that he was, agreed that he was genuinely working hard in his class. We had no choice but to let him go with the warning that should his grades ever slip, which we were quite certain they would, his permission would be revoked. He slipped at the end of his sixth year, but we'd have been appalled if he hadn't."

Harry had nothing to say. McGonagall did though. "I think you can learn a lot from him and he from you. Your situations were similar but you're reactions different."

An hour later Harry found himself roaming the halls looking for this mysterious curse-breaker and former Hogwarts hero. For the first time, in a very long time, Harry wanted to befriend someone. He found him on the seventh floor staring at the wall where the Room of Requirement usually opened up, consulting a parchment.

"Hey, got a minute to talk?"

He turned to look at him and smiled. "Sure." Harry watched as he folded the parchment and put it back into his pocket. Harry suddenly realized that instead of robes, Daniel was wearing entirely muggle clothing and in a manner that conveyed he had first-hand experience with muggles.

"Are you-" he cut himself off and rephrased, "Your wearing muggle clothes better than most wizards. How come?"

"My grandfather Joseph Carter was a muggle. Also, we lived near them and my mum was pretty strict about maintaining the Statute of Secrecy."

"Ah."

"What did you want to talk about?"

Harry tried to guess the most considerate view as Bill had advised him, but in the end, he decided to jump in with both feet. "You."

Daniel's smile became sardonic. "What did she tell you?"

Harry revealed the very little McGonagall had told him and waited.

"That's high praise. My mum had already threatened me with homeschooling if I didn't sort out my grades. She's as Ravenclaw as they come."

Harry shifted his feet. "I snuck out and got caught. I lied about it though. That incident was probably one of the reasons Professor Snape and maybe even Dumbledore didn't trust me with anything unless they had to. I was quite pleased with myself then. Not anymore though."

The silence between them stretched out. He noticed that Daniel was avoiding eye contact.

"I've never been averse to making new friends. But I think you want a little more than friendship. You think I can understand what you're going through in a way no one else can and can help you out too. Though I don't suppose you want to admit that part."

Harry felt embarrassed and vaguely unsettled by his reply. _How did he know? He's only met me a few times._ He felt as if he was missing something obvious.

"I was a member of the Order as well. I have second-hand reports of more or less everything that you did. Since I don't want to narrate my life's history, why don't you have Charlie tell you my story? He's a major part of it. We can talk after that."

He came over to him and extended his hand. "Deal?"

"Deal." He shook it.

* * *

"I can't."

"Can I ask why not?"

"No."

"Don't be coward again Charles."

Charlie and Harry turned to look at Bill. He was standing leaning against the door with his arms crossed and glaring at his younger brother.

They silently stared at each other, while the rest of them, him, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Fleur, kept looking from one to the other. Harry looked questioningly at Ron and Ginny, but they both shook their heads as confused as he was.

"I'm not a coward. I did what I thought was the best for my brothers." Turning back to Harry he added, "Bill and I will both tell you about the Vaults and our involvement with them. But not inside, in the yard outback. Give me a few minutes to grab some things."

Once they were seated out in the back yard, Ron turned on Bill. "What was that about?"

"Charlie will tell you. Do you remember I once told you guys about secret chambers at Hogwarts? Those were the Cursed Vaults I was talking about. There were five, I've been in three of them, Charlie in two."

"You never mentioned that."

"It was too dangerous to talk about. We didn't want mom to know."

Further questioning was interrupted by Charlie showing up with a photo album and a sealed box.

"I'll tell you from the beginning." He opened the album and showed them a photograph of a Gryffindor dorm with five excited eleven-year-old boys. Charlie and Rowan Khanna were easily identifiable. Harry guessed the pale boy with dark wavy hair must be Carter. The other two were Asian and blonde respectively. Charlie introduced them, "Jae Kim, Mundungus Fletcher's protégé; Ben Copper, a muggle-born who went from being scared of everything to scaring everyone; me and Rowan, the 'Hermione' of our year; and lastly Daniel Carter, the most infamous and disliked boy since he stepped into the school, even though he hadn't done anything, yet. Bill, why don't you give some background?"

Bill put an arm around Fleur, "These guys started Hogwarts in the fall of '84. As you know, the First War ended on Halloween of '81, but the Death Eaters were still being rounded up well into the winter of '82. It was during that time that the Prophet started publishing about the strange curses at Hogwarts and that they were being caused by the renegade Death Eaters but being hidden under the guise of fabled Cursed Vaults. One boy finally died, and in the spring of '83, one of his classmates was expelled from Hogwarts because of his connections to the curses. He disappeared days after being expelled and the Prophet slandered his family accusing them of hiding their insane Death Eater son who trying to bring back You-Know-Who but hiding behind stories of secret chambers at Hogwarts. That boy was Jacob Carter, Daniel's older brother."

Charlie took over then. "A little over a year after Jacob's disappearance, the Daily Prophet began to re-print those old reports about Jacob and announced that his younger brother would be in Hogwarts that fall. Daniel wasn't welcomed into Gryffindor, because Jacob was the first Gryffindor to be expelled in years. Rowan and Daniel had met in Diagon alley while getting supplies and so stuck together from the start. Daniel spent the whole year trying to convince everyone he wasn't like Jacob and find some clues about his missing brother. Everyone started thinking he was okay when he beat Merula Snyde, the first-year Slytherin bully in a duel. We became friends after that. I figured the Prophet was talking trash."

"Our second year was when the troubles started." He told them how the first Vault was protected by Cursed Ice that would trap a witch or wizard and could only be gotten rid of by someone on the outside casting _Incendio_. Then how Rowan and Daniel conducted a personal investigation and found a hidden staircase that leads to a corridor filled with suits of armor at the end of which was the Vault. That was when Rowan got hurt and ended up in the hospital wing and Daniel approached Bill for dulling lessons. Bill took over and told them how they dueled and Daniel beat him with three spells he knew.

"He was a second-year who knew all of three dueling spells and he beat you, a fourth-year and guaranteed prefect?" Ginny sounded like she didn't believe him. Well, Harry didn't either.

"Yeah. He took the first shot and hit me with the tickling charm and when I doubled over laughing, he hit me with a knockback jinx. When I fell over, he used expelliarmus to get rid of my wand. We became friends that day and I taught him _Incendio_. I've beaten him a few times since then though."

"He muzt be a veery strong wizard." Fleur remarked. Bill nodded, "He is. You wouldn't want to end up on the wrong end of his wand."

They continued and told them how the ice rapidly spread to half the school and how Daniel, the muggleborn Ben Copper, and Bill went into the Vault while the rest of their friends- apparently Bill hung out with them more than his classmates- freed anyone they could. Inside the Vault, Bill got trapped in the ice and Ben tried to free him while Daniel dueled a frozen Knight and beat him. Inside the Vault he found his brother's broken wand and a notebook that told him to keep looking.

"That's the rule. Beat the Vault guardian and pay a price to open the Pillar, and the curse breaks. After that everyone considered Daniel as the new hero of Hogwarts. We even won the House cup that year because he earned a hundred points."

Charlie took over. "The next year we faced the Boggart curse. Bill was a prefect that year and didn't have the time to get too involved with the Vault and I was busy with dragons and quidditch like the year before that." He told them about how the school had Boggarts jumping out left and right in the common room, corridors, classrooms and even the restrooms. When he started to tell about how Daniel got permission for Hogsmeade, Harry broke in and relayed what McGonagall and Daniel had told him.

Bill and Charlie looked at each other and smiled. "Hagrid let slip that Jacob used to spend a lot of time at the Three Broomsticks. Daniel had to go to Hogsmeade no matter what. But I'll give him credit for his training. Most of the free time he had was spent either studying in the library or practicing spells in the training grounds." Charlie then told them how he managed to befriend a Slytherin and inadvertently created a truce between Gryffindor and Slytherin. "Our houses didn't matter to us outside of the Quidditch pitch."

"Wasn't that the year Slytherin started taking the house cup every year?"

"The house cup was earned by Slytherin fair and square, some accused them of cheating but none of the allegations stuck since Snape gave points to Gryffindor and took them from Slytherin almost the same as any other professor."

Ron sat up at that. "Snape gave points to Gryffindor? That's impossible."

Bill didn't even bother to look up from his nails. "Just because he never gave them to you doesn't mean he never gave them to anyone."

Charlie leaned back and stretched his legs. "In my potions classes, most often he used to take points from Merula, a Slytherin, and give them to Daniel or Rowan, both Gryffindors. He gave them one insult for each point as well, but no one ever heard him talk without insulting someone so that was just business as usual. Even I earned points a few times even though I'm not that great at potions."

Harry and Hermione shared a glance. "So, he was always a git but was fair in point giving?"

"Git? Well, I suppose all professors are. He once told Rowan that whoever said there were no stupid questions never met him and then went on with his lecture. At the end of the class, he told us that everyone except Rowan was a 'dunderhead' for not having the sense to ask about the basics of potion making and then answered Rowan's question and gave him five points while also leaning over the desk into his face and threatening him that the next time he interrupted a lecture he'd be scrubbing cauldrons with his toothbrush. The same week McGonagall gave Jae and me detention in her office because she thought we weren't paying attention during her lecture."

They then continued with their tale, telling them how Daniel, with the help of Ravenclaw Tulip Karasu, who was now Harry and Ron's supervisor, figured out that the second vault was behind the restricted section in the library. Bill, being a prefect, took advantage of his status and reputation to lead Pince away to the opposite end of the library letting Daniel, Barnaby (a Niffler and Crup puppy loving Slytherin and their ex-bully) and Tulip sneak in, but not before getting into a small duel with Merula and Ismelda ("The Slytherin bullies whom Barnaby used to hang out with-" "We got that Charlie."). Inside the Vault he successfully dulled three You-Know-Who Boggarts and opened the Vault Pillar by touching the broken pieces of his brother's wand to it finding a map of the Forbidden Forest and the end of a broken arrow.

"The price of the Vault of Fear was the thing a witch or wizard feared the most. Not being able to do magic. A broken wand met that condition. The year ended soon after. We gained a few points for inter-house cooperation but tied in second place with Ravenclaw."

"That summer, the Prophet started printing about how the younger Carter brother was undoing the damage his brother had caused and that the Cursed Vaults were indeed real. But Daniel didn't care about that, because that summer, his Dad died after a long illness."

"In fourth year, Dumbledore announced that he didn't want any students messing with the Cursed Vaults and introduced the school to a world-famous curse-breaker who would take over the search- Patricia Rakepick."

At her name, Bill and Charlie grew quiet for a moment and then started showing them photographs of the first three years. They realized that most of the photographs were in the Great Hall, Courtyard or the Three Broomsticks with people from all houses and Bill, was the only one older. Tonks was in many of them with an arm around Penny and Tulip, while Barnaby Lee sat with Charlie and Rowan. Ben looked timid in the corner and Bill watching from the side, while Daniel himself seemed to have no fixed place and spoke to everyone, but especially to one olive-skinned Ravenclaw boy in the ones from their third year.

"That's Talbott Winger. He-"

"-died in the war. I know." Kingsley had mentioned him. The last Auror standing.

"-was an eagle animagus. He and McGonagall trained Daniel in our seventh year."

They began telling them about the fourth year. "The Sleepwalking curse. Students would randomly get up in the middle of the night and walk into the Forbidden Forest. The staff kept yawning in classes because they had to patrol the perimeter of that part of the castle entire nights. That's when Daniel and I became close. I used sneak into the forest all the time, so why let Bill be the only Weasley who went into the vaults? It wasn't until the end of our fifth year, did we realize how dangerous all this was."

He told them about how Rakepick brushed aside all of Daniel's work with the Vaults and how Snape of all people came to his defense. (Bill cut in, "I think it was a question of who he hated more between the two of them.") Soon after that, Rakepick started helping Daniel by telling who he could approach for information. Then how Daniel was called to the courtyard by a fake note just before curfew and attacked from behind by a cloaked wizard who warned him that death was coming to Hogwarts if he continued to search for the Vaults and left immobilized and silenced until McGonagall found him at four in the morning. In the forest they met a centaur, Torvus, who told them that Jacob had stolen his clan's jeweled arrowhead and gotten him banished. They borrowed Rakepick's niffler, Sickleworth to try and find it, and after searching the entire castle and then the forest they found it in a red cap's hole. But before Daniel could recover it, Snape caught him trying to fly into the forest and vanished his borrowed broom saying that he'd deal with him later. But then in private, he told him to spy on Rakepick for a few days.

"Rakepick let him spy on her on the pretext of gathering potion ingredients, then called him said 'Give Severus Snape my regards.' Snape's reply was something along the lines of 'Now she knows that you're on my side instead of hers.' Daniel moaned about getting caught in the middle of their rivalry for weeks."

Snape then gave him a bottle of garroting gas to keep with him at all times and twenty-five house points before returning the broom with a warning to be cautious around Rakepick. They recovered the arrowhead and returned it to Torvus who agreed to take them to the Forest Vault if Hagrid to accompany them. But before they could get around to that, Charlie, Rowan, and Daniel were attacked by the red cloaked wizard from earlier. He immobilized Rowan and Charlie before they could get their wand out but Daniel managed to hold him off long enough for Rakepick to come and rescue them. The wizard turned out to be Ben Copper under the Imperious curse. While Ben was confined to the Hospital wing, they completed their job, after which Rakepick prepared them to battle Acromantulas and then went into the forest.

Bill took over again. "Me, Charlie, Hagrid, Torvus and Daniel went in just before the exams." He told them how the Forest Vault was taken over by an Acromantulas lair who wanted to have the sleepwalking students for their meals but couldn't because Torvus and the Professors had been stopping the students. Torvus, Charlie and Hagrid got trapped in spiderweb the moment we went in and Bill a few minutes later when one attacked from behind. Thankfully, Daniel beat the leader and they left. Once inside, Daniel heard his brother telling him that he was trapped in the next vault, and that he had to get to him before 'them'. 'Them' turned out to be the same 'R' that had released a rogue dementer in the school earlier that year.

The Price for that Vault was something as old as the forest and valuable. The Jeweled Arrowhead. Inside was a portrait of a Dragon and a small sweater. Coming out of the Vault they were stopped by Dumbledore and Filch where Daniel took the blame for everything and was sentenced to detentions in the kitchen starting from his fifth year till 'he learned his lesson'.

"Daniel initially told Dumbledore that he'd willingly accept the old punishments of caning and stuff which made Filch very happy. We didn't get any points that year but found out that Rakepick was going to be our new DADA professor the next year."

"That's good right?" Ron asked. But Harry's thoughts were elsewhere. Save for Remus, Snape had been right about the rest of the DADA professors being up to no good. If he didn't like Rakepick and would go so far as to give a choking gas to Daniel, well….

"Fifth year came, and Daniel bought news that his mother was proud of him and supported his quest for the Cursed Vaults. That year's curses first victim was Penny's younger sister, Beatrice Haywood. Penny was devastated and stayed that way throughout the year. It was the Portrait Curse where the victims would be trapped in the paintings unable to properly interact with those on the outside."

They told them how Rakepick took Bill, Merula, and Daniel under her wing as apprentice curse-breakers, promised Bill a job at Gringotts and became Merula's mentor figure and got Daniel to sneak out to Knockturn Alley and chase after some enchanted map of Hogwarts four ex-students had supposedly made for over half the year. How she lied about knowing Jacob, and broke Daniel's wand when he asked her about it but then took him Diagon Alley to get a new one. How he spent his afternoons searching for the Vaults, his evenings in detention till curfew every single day and came back too exhausted to study for the OWLs, but that he still forced himself to do it because falling behind in class would have meant more trouble.

"At one point, we, his dormmates, appealed to McGonagall to reduce his detentions because he was wearing himself out. She spoke with Dumbledore but he said that the House-elf Pitts would decide when to end the detentions." Those detentions were however reduced to twice a week when he started having hallucinations but which later became clear was someone placing images in his mind using legilimency. An ability, that Daniel had inherited just like Jacob. Four days a week he had legilimency and occlumency lessons with Snape under the guise of remedial potions.

"He's a legilimens and occlumens trained by Snape?"

"I thought he was." Hermione broke in. Seeing their expressions, she added, "He was avoiding eye contact, but still seemed to know what we were thinking." _That explains a lot_, thought Harry.

Then the house ghosts led them to the ghost of the boy who died before Jacob was expelled, Duncan Ashe. Ashe, who was a friend of Jacob's searching for the vaults, told them that 'R' forced them to hurry with the Vaults, that Jacob protected them and let himself be expelled, and that their next clue was with Peeves. Peeves, who had them running around planning and pulling pranks, one of which included a troll, for over a month before agreeing to give them the Vault portrait which was a portkey to the Vault that would be activated exactly three days before the Graduation ceremony for the seventh years. In between that, Rowan was imperioused in front of them to give them the message that one friend of Daniel would die soon. By the time they got the portkey, their OWLs were less than three weeks away.

"Daniel, and to be honest, all of us abandoned everything except our studies for the OWLs. And when they began, we found out that the Ministry had their eyes on Daniel. Our head examiner, Professor Tofty, was asked to spy on him and see how much of a danger he was to the Wizarding World. Dumbledore got him back down though."

Bill remarked rather sagely, "Independent Heroes scare Governments."

After the OWLs, they took some days to prepare for the Dragon they would most surely face in there. Ben Copper by then had decided to be brave, and Merula and Daniel were more or less, friends. Charlie, Bill, Ben, Merula, Daniel and Rakepick, went out at night and let the portkey take them to the Buried Vault. Inside, an old and scarred Hungarian Horntail emerged from a portrait and knocked down part of the roof by spreading its wings, thus trapping Ben, Merula and Charlie under rubble, with Bill desperately trying to get them out and Rakepick using _arresto momentum_ to stop more debris from crushing them, leaving Daniel to battle it out with a fully-grown dragon.

"Best spell work I ever saw, it's part of the reason why the Ministry agreed to have Dragons in the tri-wizard tournament, the best of the best could beat one."

The Vault, specially enchanted, was opened by the use of Daniel's legilimency, and then came the betrayal. Patricia Rakepick used the cruciatus on Merula and hiding behind a shield told them about how she, Jacob and Peter Pettigrew came to the Vault only for that rat to apparate away with the portkey as soon as he saw the dragon.

"She had been working for 'R' and knew from the start where Jacob was. We thought she was lying about Pettigrew but I guess it was probably true. She was the one who imperioused Ben and later Rowan." They managed to stop her then- while the other three distracted her, Daniel used the garroting gas to catch her unawares but she apparated away. They freed Jacob from a Portrait but he disapparated to chase after Rakepick.

"The Vault pillar opened when Daniel touched it, we don't know what the price was for it. I'm guessing betrayal. Inside was a portrait of Hogwarts that took us back to the Great Hall and a merperson trident."

Later at the Graduation party for Bill, Mad-eye moody showed up and all but kidnapped Daniel for three hours.

"Sixth year was one disaster and danger after another."

Sixth year began with a Ben who had no fear and even less of common sense seeing as he thought threatening Knockturn Alley denizens was a good idea, a Beatrice who decided that nothing and no one mattered anymore especially her own sister, and a Merula who wanted revenge. Then there was Dumbledore who did all he could to convince them to drop the matter, Mad-Eye Moody who decided that Daniel was the only one who could stop 'R' once and for all, and a Jacob who wanted to fix his mistake of trusting the wrong people. On top of all that was Daniel, now obsessed with winning the race to the last Vault.

"The final curse was the Statue curse. People were being petrified and were of the same material as the trident we found." By the time Halloween was over, Daniel had a pile from threats from 'R', who intended to claim a life of someone dear to him, had directly disobeyed Dumbledore thrice, snuck into the Ministry of Magic Headquarters with an invisibility cloak he got from Jae, almost stolen Rakepick's dark artifacts, which were evidence, from the Aurors, and seriously considered dropping out of Hogwarts for the sake of everyone's safety, all the while looking over his shoulder because of the assassin Jacob warned him about during a brief meeting in Knockturn Alley of all places.

"That's when Charlie decided to be a coward and abandon his friend."

"You know I regret it! And you know I did it because I wanted to keep my, to keep our brothers safe." Charlie growled at Bill. They stared each other down again. Fleur interceded by pulling Bill towards her. The other four decided that the grass they were sitting on was the most interesting thing in the world.

Charlie turned to them and spoke, "Fred and George had taken a liking to Daniel. With everything that was happening, I was afraid that something might happen to them or Percy if they got involved. So, I backed out, and soon, other than Rowan, Ben, and Merula, no one was willing to go into the final Vault with him but they were willing to help him outside of it. As you might have guessed, our 'crew' consisted of almost half of our year." Daniel had a habit of calling every person he interacted with for more than an hour, a friend. Harry never even bothered to learn the names of half the people in his year.

"Soon after, Daniel figured out that the merpeople could have the next clue because of the trident and the coral key he found in fourth year. By Christmas, he had the location of the Vault. The deepest cavern at the bottom of the lake. There was another entrance from the deepest level of the dungeons as well, but one of the corridors had caved in. From one of his sources, he never told us who, he received word that Rakepick would go in on the full moon on January 11. That night, at midnight he went in with his brother who had snuck into Hogwarts. You see, he'd lied to us. He lied to everyone saying that they would go in on Sunday because that's when Rakepick would be there. He didn't want to risk anyone but himself."

He told him how Merula had tried to follow him into the lake but couldn't because Rakepick showed up and threw her against the castle wall. "We never figured out how she got into Hogwarts. Merula said she came from someone inside the Castle."

Harry knew. He knew, and somehow felt guilty for it even though it all happened before he knew he was a wizard.

Charlie told them how the Castle started shaking, lightly at first and then heavily as they opened the last Vault which was located right where part of Hogwarts foundation was. How the teachers had them pulled out of their dorms and taken to the great hall where they would be safe, how Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick went into the Dungeons to access the Vault while Sprout watched over them. How less than an hour later, every student at Hogwarts saw Professors Snape and McGonagall run to the hospital wing with a stretcher between them and Dumbledore and Flitwick following with a plain coffin soon after.

They were quite for a while after that, each one trying to silently digest how the story of a friendly boy who loved his friends and family turned into such a tragedy.

Bill patted Charlie on the shoulder in the loving rough way brothers do, then turned to them. "The price for opening the Pillar was a life. The curse took Jacob's life and Rakepick took the enchanted chest that was inside and left using a portkey. Dumbledore tore down a few walls to get Daniel out of there. Madam Pomfrey and Snape kept Daniel in the hospital wing for almost three weeks. Everyone regarded him as a hero for breaking the final curse, but Daniel felt that he'd failed. Finding Jacob was the only reason he got involved with the Vaults in the first place. The crew got back together after that. Everyone called these guys Carter's crew."

Charlie took over, "We took the name with pride. The one time he went into a battle without anyone by his side was the one time he lost. We weren't leaving our mate alone after that. Barely two weeks after he was discharged from the hospital wing, the Ministry came down on him. Kingsley was the one who came in and dragged him off to custody as if he were a dangerous criminal. How that same Auror became a member of the Order I'll never know. He was released two weeks later but with the trace on him till graduation. Seventh year seemed mostly normal to us, but as it turned out, Daniel had secretly joined forces with Mad-Eye to take down 'R'. The secrets of the vault were in that chest Rakepick took, but to open it she needed the coral key. The same one that Daniel had with him since our fourth year. Barely a week after the NEWTs, Daniel posed as a Knockturn alley trader known to 'R' using polyjuice and told them that he'd managed to steal the key. On the pretext of giving it in person, he was allowed into their headquarters where he tore down the anti-apparition wards and allowed an entire Auror squad to enter. The Ministry had the names of every major player involved in the criminal organization named 'R', and Daniel was once again hailed as a hero."

"What were the secrets of the Vaults?" Hermione asked.

"Ask Daniel. He never told us what they were."

Bill lay down on the grass with his arms behind his head. "See, Daniel's father was a healer in St. Mungo's spell damage department. During the War, he somehow got infected with dark magic and was told there was no cure. The curse slowly weakened him till he died. 'R' was a group that traded in everything from secrets to rare artifacts to obscure books containing forbidden magic. They were ready to go to any extent for their trade and had a few dark wizards from Mahoutokoru to act as assassins. To get to the cursed Vaults, they needed a legilimens for the job who was also a student at Hogwarts. When Richard Carter became sick, they took advantage of Jacob and convinced him that the Final Vault held a healing text that held cures for every magical illness and injury. Jacob had willingly worked with them but decided to get back at them after he was freed from the portrait he was left locked in for years. At that time, Daniel refused to tell us why they wanted the chest from the Vault or what was in it, nor did he tell us what happened inside the final Vault, only that Rakepick nearly killed him. Later, when he joined the Order's international division, he told us that 'R' was hired by a wing of Death Eaters hidden in Albania to bring back Voldemort."

Harry sat up straight at that. "Albania was where Tom's spirit was hiding out!"

Bill propped himself on his elbow. "I know. Daniel probably pushed back his return by four years."

Ron stretched and lay back on the grass staring at the now setting sun. They'd been out here for over two hours. "Sounds to me he's a lot like you, Harry. We also owe him a thank you."

Bill and Charlie spoke in unison before Harry could respond. "No, he's not. Daniel usually researches and plans everything out before jumping in."

They sat in silence for a while when Charlie decided to speak again. "It wasn't all curses and duels you know. Once, in our seventh year, he gifted me this after we spent weeks trying to obtain a dragon egg." He opened the small box he'd bought with him and showed them the gleaming scale of a Hebridean Black. "I don't know where he got it from, but to date, it's the best Christmas present I ever got."

No one responded, except George. "Fred always liked him." He got up and walked back into the house. Ginny later told Harry he'd joined them when Charlie had started showing them the photo albums.

Something occurred to Harry, "What was Daniel's relation with Snape?"

"With Snape? Well, Daniel could never stop himself from laughing at his sarcastic remarks, and unlike the rest of us, he was never actually afraid of him. Snape even seemed to like him at times, and by like, I mean that he'd not yell at him as much as he did at us. I guess they were good terms after the Occlumency and Legilimency lessons. And since Snape hated Rakepick, he helped Daniel out when it came to her."

Hermione let out a small sigh. "For a man who seemed to hate Gryffindors, he sure spent a lot of time and effort protecting them. I'd say his 'saving people thing' is even bigger than you Harry."

"I guess all of us aren't so different after all."

* * *

**Author's Note: This chapter has been split. **

**The next chapter has… you've been waiting of them… The Malfoys! **

**And Kingsley's long awaited '**_**Talk'.**_


	8. Let's Talk

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood with their heads bowed and their eyes fixed on the carpet of the Minister of Magic's office, while the Minister himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt paced in front of them lecturing them.

"- you don't need to like the law to follow it. And yes, Harry, I remember your suggestion to change the law when it came to Skeeter's publishing. You can't change laws like that. The _proper procedure_ -and I swear to Merlin this the twelfth time I've used that phrase in the past twenty minutes- is to review the entire law and statues with an entire committee of professionals, take the problem that arose and view it objectively from every possible angle and then decide whether the law merits modification. And when you do modify it, you do it in proportion! Do you three understand what that means? It means that you don't use a hammer to crack open a walnut when a nut cracker will suffice! Then there's the problem of the Potions Guild. Do you three realize how much trouble the Ministry would be in if you had gotten caught? I owe that girl... what's her name? Haywood, right? for supporting that story you spun. I trusted you three do behave responsibly and you just show me how wrong I was. Do you need babysitters now? The past year when you were absconding into the wild chasing Horcruxes, the general population made you out to be some kind of messiahs. You need to keep that in mind and act in a _responsible_ and _respectable_ manner befitting your public given status."

He stopped and pointed at Ron and Harry. "Especially you two! I've been training Aurors for years and if you act like this, I'll keep you both chained to your desks until you learn how to behave. This isn't Hogwarts and you're not children, and I shouldn't have to explain to you how out here in the real world, mistakes cost a lot more than a handful of points to your house. But detention does happen. We call it paperwork. A minimum amount is required by everyone but if you make mistakes you do even more of it. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, Minister." They chorused.

"Any questions?"

Harry looked to Ron and Hermione standing at either side of him out of the corner of his eyes. "Um, Minister, we know how we owe Miss Haywood, but why do you owe her?"

Hermione sighed. Kingsley ran a hand over his face and groaned. "Think."

Harry thought. Kingsley had been explaining how they represented the Ministry and their actions would reflect on it… and he was the Minister…oh. "If we get into trouble, you're responsible?"

"Keep that in mind. Not just me, the entire Ministry looks bad. We look bad, people don't trust us. If people don't trust us, we have no political stability. No political stability means any enemy of the state, internal or external, can take advantage. Rules aren't there to restrain you, they're here to protect you and everyone around you. The United Kingdom's standing is pretty bad in the International Confederation of Wizards at the moment because of the civil war we just went through. Two wars, barely fifteen years apart is bad news. We need to be careful here, because we cannot afford to have another conflict of any kind with anyone. Hermione, I expected you to realize all this without my telling you."

Hermione seemed to shrink in on herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't think to check the rules regarding entry…"

"And these two don't think at all."

Harry and Ron resumed staring at the floor. Best to appear repentant when even calm and cool Kingsley got into a mood like this. Harry wondered what had triggered it. Kingsley had left instructions at the main gate that they were to report to his office the moment they arrived.

"Don't think I'm done with you three yet. Harry, I received a complaint from the muggle liaison office that you're harassing them via post. Care to explain what this is about?"

"What!?... I didn't… it was two letters!"

"Why did you write them? I have the location of the Dursleys."

"I asked them to locate Mr. and Mrs. Snape, so they could be informed. When they didn't respond I wrote another letter. But that's all. I swear. And Bill read over those letters and said they were formal enough."

Kingsley looked thoughtful. "Must have been the name Snape that got him wound up. The department head probably didn't like him. I'll see what I can do, but don't expect anything to happen soon." After a moment he added, "And don't get used to this! You're supposed to follow the proper channels and only if they don't work and the matter is of utmost importance should using your or having someone use their influence be considered." He then proceeded to lecture them about the limits of what they should and should not do and that it was never ethical but sometimes necessary. Following which he began a long and rather confusing tirade on how to determine necessity objectively. It apparently varied on a case to case basis, and exceptions were the rule of thumb.

Kingsley's opinion of the law was 'don't break it unless you have no other option, and be prepared to face each and every consequence'.

_Well, at least he's not advocating blindly following the law. _Harry thought.

"Now, I hope we won't have to have this talk again."

"No, sir."

"Good. So, what have you three been up to these past weeks? And by that, I mean, tell me what problems you've caused since I last spared some time to you."

Harry gave a brief report of everything he'd been doing so far from meeting McGonagall to writing applications to the muggle liaison office for them to find the location of Eileen and Tobias Snape. Ron told him how the Weasleys were, and how he and Hermione were finalizing everything for a trip to Australia to retrieve her parents.

"The Australian Minister of Magic wrote me a strongly worded letter about you sending two obliviated muggles to them. We, as in, the British Ministry, owes them a very big favor for not raising holy hell in the International Confederation of Wizards and allowing you to go and retrieve them quietly. Don't screw this up. Get them, and get out. Their memories can be restored once they're back in the Kingdom."

"It might take a while to convince them-"

"Stun them, confound them, just don't use the _imperious_. Grab 'em and leave. Their Ministry has located seven possible couples who could be your parents. Once you recognize them, just take them and leave as fast as you can. The quicker the better."

Harry then told him how he had gotten Kreacher to actually clean Number 12 Grimmauld Place, and that he was planning another trip to the Potions Guild- yes, with a proper pass. By an unspoken agreement, none of them mentioned Daniel, or more specifically, their knowledge of Kingsley arresting him.

"Hmm. You don't need a fulltime babysitter after all. Now, it's still the first week of July, but I want you to start wrapping up all this work. Try to do it by the end of this month, or early August at most. After that I want you young men to start reviewing the training material for Aurors and prepare yourself in theory. Practical training starts on September 1st. As for you Hermione, it's looking as if we might need a student representative for Hogwarts to coordinate the return of the Seventh years, -or should I say Eighth years? - and all the muggleborns who didn't attend last year. Anyway, I hope you'll volunteer for the job."

Hermione smiled. "Whatever you need. Ron and I need to go now, we have an appointment at the international travel office."

"Listen closely to everything they tell you."

Now it was just Kingsley and Harry.

"Do you need anything?"

Harry paused for a moment, pretending to think. Then told Kingsley what he wanted.

"Not possible. I can't give you access to them before their trial. It's bad enough that instead of Azkaban, they're under house arrest."

"Narcissa Malfoy lied to Riddle and saved my life. And you're the one who asked me to gather as much proof that I could for Professor Snape's trial."

"I've never heard you take that man's name with such respect. Who are you and what have you done with the pain-in-the-neck Potter the Order protected?"

"Pain-in-the-neck? I was never a formal member of the Order, and barely knew anything about what you guys did." Harry felt annoyance building up, but he controlled it for now. Experience had taught him that being angry was not going to get him answers. Besides, what was the hurry? He didn't have to be anywhere anytime soon.

"True, you weren't. But as Albus told us, there was a prophecy about a child who would defeat Riddle. It didn't matter who believed the prophecy or if it was even real. Riddle believed that it referred to you, and that meant he'd come after you. The fact you'd somehow survived three encounters with him, four if you count the time you were a baby, made the general population put all its hope on you. It was clear to us that we had to keep you alive, if only to keep the people's hope alive. That was task number one for every Order member. The second was do all we could to stop the Death Eaters from causing any more damage. The third task was to somehow kill Snake-face. That coward hardly ever showed up in battle so the third part was mostly impossible. The second task depended on Severus's information which had to be treated shrewdly. We couldn't act on it if it directly linked to him. We had to be careful to make it seem like we stumbled upon their plan from somewhere else or that it was some other Death Eater's fault.

The Order's top level of every cell by rule knew of all your shenanigans. Moody had a good laugh and Sirius said that James would have been proud, but the rest of us just wanted you to stop throwing yourself in danger. Oh, close your mouth, will you? Don't look so surprised. You became a pain in the neck when we learnt about the possible mental connection between you two. After that, telling you anything, even talking to you was a risk because it meant that he could be listening in. When it became clear possessing you hurt him too much, we thought to include you since you were going to be in the eye of the storm whether you wanted to or not."

Here, Kingsley stopped talking and started shifting through parchments as if something caught his eye.

Harry waited for him to continue but it seemed as if he was done for now. "I wasn't allowed to join. Nor was I told any more than before."

Kingsley replied without looking at him. "We unanimously decided that you weren't ready."

Now Harry's temper flared like a volcano ready to erupt. He asked coldly, "Why did everyone think I wasn't ready?"

"Watch your tone." Came an equally steely reply. They stared each other down. Harry had no intention of backing down. Kingsley seemed to be calculating something. "You're not going to like the reason."

"Tell me anyway."

"You didn't acknowledge your own responsibility and placed the entire blame on someone innocent."

Harry's anger evaporated. Confusion dominated. "I… what?"

"Try and remember what happened at the Department of Mysteries and what you did afterwards."

"A lot happened and I've done a lot of things since then."

"You know who I'm talking about."

_A laugh still frozen on his face. A sneer ever present on his._

He stood up. "Excuse me, Minister." And walked straight out of the room without looking back.

Fifteen minutes late he was entering the Chamber of Death. He walked towards the Veil, removed his invisibility cloak and listened to the whispered voices. It was here that Sirius had died.

"_Come on, you can do better than that!"_

Harry clenched his fists. _He didn't look. He never saw the next jet of red light come at him. _Harry was breathing hard. _He was laughing. He died laughing. He was dueling the woman who tortured Neville's parents into insanity and he was laughing. _

He backed away from the veil and turned around, no longer able to face the wretched curtain. _He came here to save me. I came here to save him. _The irony was painful. Too painful.

_He was able to come because Snape informed the Order. _Harry started walking around now. Standing still was too much. _Snape hated Sirius. Sirius hated Snape. But Snape still checked to see if he was alright. _

_Bellatrix killed Sirius. She killed him because I led him here. _

A cloud that had been on Harry lifted. The realization forced him to lean against the wall and lower himself to a sitting position. Facing the veil, he contemplated what he had always known.

He loved Sirius which was why he came here knowing that there were Death Eaters. Sirius came because he loved him. Did Snape's goading and Dumbledore's restriction really matter? Umbridge and the threat of expulsion didn't matter to him, why would Sirius have been any different? Bellatrix was responsible because she cast the spell which killed him. Sirius was responsible because he treated a life or death duel like a joke. Harry himself was responsible because he came rushing to the Ministry. Because he hadn't trusted Snape to check up on Sirius. Because Snape and Sirius hated each other and he hated Snape. Because Snape was awful to him. And Sirius was awful to Snape. Everyone was responsible one way or another. Hadn't he been thinking just a few weeks ago that there was too much blame to pass around?

It was two hours later when a much subdued but somehow lighter Harry entered the Ministers office.

"I blamed Snape for Sirius's death even though it wasn't his fault. I refused to… to see that it was my fault." He paused. "More than anyone else's, really."

Kingsley beckoned him closer and bade him to sit. After handing him a cup of tea, he spoke. "One thing leads to another. Often in ways we can't even imagine. Bellatrix Lestrange killed Sirius Black. It was her fault and no one else deserves the blame. Sirius chose to go. As did you. So did every other person who was there."

"The Order didn't blame me?"

"Fifteen-year-olds do all kinds of stupid things. Some more, some less. Some come to their senses sooner, some never grow up. We decided that you needed time to grow up on your own before Riddle pulled you head-first into the war. I can't even begin to tell you how ashamed most of us are that we needed a bunch of teenagers to end this fight. Dumbledore had told us that he gave you some task to finish but that you would need all the help you could get. We thought that after your birthday, once the Trace came off you, we'd induct you into the Order and go ahead with whatever plan he gave you. But then the Ministry fell and you three disappeared."

"Is that why everyone keeps putting me to task every single day?" Kingsley nodded. Well that explained why everyone was treating him like an idiot. He just wished the public would do the same. He was getting tired of sneaking around in his invisibility cloak everywhere.

"You need to learn how to play with the team, not fly solo. I don't think anyone ever bothered to tell you that you don't need to do everything on your own."

He finished the cup in his hand. "Snape did. He was always telling me how I wasn't special or important and that I should mind my own business."

Kingsley just laughed.

"I still need to visit the Malfoys."

"The answer is still no. They're criminals."

"Even Draco?"

"Even Draco."

"I don't suppose he's the first teenager you've ever arrested and kept locked up."

Kingsley set down his quill and carefully folded up the parchment he was signing. He sat back in his chair and levelled his gaze at Harry. "You're as subtle as a chimera in a crystal shop. There has only been one other seventeen-year-old I arrested myself. And last I checked he was out of the country. What do you know?"

"Well he's back and the new DADA professor."

"He's the professor Minerva's been hiding from me? Bit young to be teaching. Who told you?"

"Charlie and Bill told us all about his work with the Cursed Vaults and his run-in with the Ministry."

Kingsley looked at the wall behind Harry's shoulder. "It was more than a run-in. He snuck into the Ministry with an invisibility cloak and almost stole some artifacts belonging to a fugitive of the law based on information he received from a Knockturn Alley peddler. Good thing Moody caught him before he seriously did some damage on that wild goose chase, which incidentally was organized by Rakepick herself. Later, when Rakepick escaped and Hogwarts was put into serious danger, the Minister's office finally decided to take action."

"Charlie said he couldn't understand how the same person who arrested Daniel, later joined the Order." Harry himself had a hard time believing that Kingsley who had mislead the Ministry about Sirius for months would be the same one who hauled in a student for saving Hogwarts.

Kingsley gave him a wan smile. "He wasn't the first law-breaking do-gooder I had arrested, but he was the last." He paused, "And the youngest. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it couldn't be more than seven-eight years. It was also the first time I met Hogwarts's potions master. Or as we Aurors called him those days, Dumbledore's pet Death Eater."

"What happened?"

"A lot of things. Aurors were divided into two major factions. I used to work under Scrimgeour. He was a stickler for the letter of the law. Moody headed the other faction which believed in the spirit of justice. I was always torn between the two. Rufus hated Dumbledore for having a Death Eater turned spy employed at Hogwarts and wanted a first-hand report on him. It was a matter of great shame for our department that the only one who defected from their side went to Dumbledore instead of the Department of Law Enforcement. So, when the command came from the Minister's office that a young delinquent had to be brought in from Hogwarts, who incidentally, was an inside operative of sorts to Moody, well, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to bring him in."

_Kingsley had been greeted at the door by old Filch who kept telling him that the boy was a good for nothing trouble maker. He also told him that he could be found in the courtyard at this time of the day. The news of arrival preceded his actual arrival at the courtyard. _

_He consulted the photograph he had received of the boy in question- Daniel R. Carter, age 17, Gryffindor. _

_It took him a while to recognize him because the somewhat sickly boy with a depressed air around him looked nothing like the smiling OWL student from the photograph. He found the boy sitting near the empty fountain with a few friends. _

"_Daniel R. Carter?"_

_The boy got up without any enthusiasm. "Yes sir?"_

"_I need you to accompany me to the Ministry. You're under arrest for breaking and entering the Department of Law Enforcement, your role in the escape of fugitive Patricia Rakepick and the recent death of fugitive Jacob Carter."_

_The last bit had him close to panicking. "Where's my Head of House?" he stepped to the side to put some distance between himself and Kingsley. Kingsley noted his right-hand flexing. He slowly reached for his own wand without actually taking it out. _

"_I recommend you leave your wand out of this. Since you're of age, I am not obligated to have a guardian informed of your arrest. I suggest that you cooperate."_

"_And… w-what if I don't?"_

"_That would not be wise." He noted a bespectacled boy running into the castle out of the corner of his eye._

_Then it happened. A wand was drawn and a non-verbal stunner fired at him. He deflected it but received a hard shove at his wand arm knocking it out of his hand. By the time he grabbed it while noting the general look of the one who shoved him, an olive skinned Ravenclaw boy running in the opposite direction, the one he came to arrest had already run off into the castle. _

_Kingsley gave chase. He didn't have to go too far. Two corridors down the boy was leaning against a wall coughing. He was definitely recovering from something serious. Kingsley moved to approach him but was stopped. He found himself face to face with the one he was curious to meet. The Death Eater. _

"_To what do we owe the pleasure of an Auror's company?" _

"_I'm here to arrest a delinquent. Now move out of my way." He tried to side-step him but the man stayed toe to toe with him. Behind him, the boy had slid down to the floor still coughing. '_How can I arrest him?' _Kingsley thought._

_He was joined by the bespectacled boy from before. Snape drawled out a lazy command without even turning his head. "Drink the Breath-ease potion you have, Carter. Madam Pomfrey didn't grow you a new lung so you could cough it out. Khanna, stop standing like the trees on your family's farm and assist him." Following the command, the boy took out a vial from his pocket but couldn't drink it. His hands were shaking too much, the other boy helped him._

_Snape slowly stepped back all the while keeping his eyes locked with Kingsley's. He stood in front of the boys and stared at Kingsley as if he were some bug he needed to dissect. Kingsley lowered his wand. In the few minutes it took for Dumbledore and McGonagall to arrive followed by the boy who had shoved him he was beginning to question everything he knew about morality and legality._

"I had gone to arrest a felon and report back to Rufus about Dumbledore's pet Death Eater. I followed my orders and took him in. I listened to Rufus and over half the department demand Azkaban for a devastated boy for the death of his own brother and allowing the woman who killed him escape. I heard Dumbledore defend him, and watched as Moody offered a compromise. I also patiently listened to his mother and McGonagall threaten to kill me should anything happen to their precious lion while in custody. But worse than all that, I heard a former Death Eater of all people tell me that I didn't need to tell that kid how he was responsible for his brother's death. The kid would do it himself."

He picked up his quill and unrolled another parchment from the towering pile. "After it was over, I requested a transfer to the Training division. All the four recruits the next year were friends of his and hated me. Took a while to earn their trust and respect. Winger was the one who shoved me and called McGonagall and Dumbledore."

Harry shifted in his chair. "So that's how you ended up in the Order?"

"It was a factor. I already disagreed with a lot of things the Ministry, especially my department, was doing. That time we went too far. It had me thinking for months about the kind of man I had set out to be and what I had ended up as. You can't wait for someone to do something for you, Harry. The best way to change the situation of the department was to train the new recruits to think about right and wrong instead of just focusing on legal and illegal. It's why I went into training. It's also why I'm not letting you into the field without whipping you into shape first."

Harry nodded his acceptance. He didn't trust himself to do right anymore. Not when he'd been wrong about so many things, not when the only reason Voldemort was truly gone was because he decided to kneel at the side of a man he hated.

They sat in silence for some time until Kingsley spoke up, "You can visit the Malfoys. Tell Draco we'll see what we can do if he wants to complete his education." With that Harry was handed a hastily written note and shooed out of the office with the command to report to Auror Robards on Level 2.

* * *

Auror Robards was needless to say, highly displeased with the Minister's decision to allow Harry the visit to the Malfoy family.

"Keep your wand on you." He warned Harry in a low growl.

"I thought the Ministry had taken their wands?" Although in reality, Lucius's wand had been destroyed almost a year ago, Draco had lost his to Harry and Narcissa's had been snapped right after the battle; it was the spare wands they had in their Manor that were seized.

Robards grumbled something Harry didn't want to make out. "You can go back now, Sir. I'll contact you when I'm ready to go back. This may take some time."

After repeating half a dozen warnings which could be summarized into 'be careful' and 'don't let your guard down', Auror Robards left Harry in the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. He turned towards the living room he had been told to enter on the left side when he spotted Draco Malfoy.

Harry stepped forward feeling awkward. "Uh… hey. How've you been?"

Draco replied in a hollow voice. "What do you want? And where's weasel- Weasley and Granger?"

"They had other work to do. I'm here to talk to you guys. About Professor Snape. And to pass on some offers from the Minister."

Draco stared at him. He looked as haggard as he did in their sixth year. He jerked his head and bade him to follow.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were sitting on opposite ends of an opulent couch before the fireplace. The Manor wasn't well lit but the roaring fireplace illuminated that part of the room nicely.

He took the offered seat on an armchair near the fireplace while Draco stood leaning his arms against the back of the sofa in the middle. A house-elf popped in with a tray of water, tea and biscuits. Harry accepted a glass of water.

Lucius Malfoy seemed to have an exhausted air about him. As if he hadn't been eating or sleeping properly. How the mighty had fallen. "State your purpose and then leave, Potter."

"Better get right to it then. You, Mr. Malfoy, will be going on trial and it will be best if you give up all the details you know of Riddle's every operation willingly. You might get some time in Azkaban but chances for parole or even probation are better if you cooperate. Mrs. Malfoy might get a full pardon, or probation for a few years because she saved my life by lying to Riddle. Draco did everything under duress and was underage when he took the Mark, so he might be free, depending on his other crimes." He looked to Draco. "The Minister wants to know if you want to go back to Hogwarts and complete your education? It might be possible."

Draco and Narcissa looked at each other and passed some silent message to each other. Or so Harry could only assume.

"I'll think about it." He walked out without sparing a glace to anyone. Narcissa followed him almost immediately.

Lucius spoke after a few moments. "Excuse them. These past years have been difficult for my family."

"Right." Harry was beginning to wonder if coming alone was such a good idea after all. He should have bought someone who got along with the Malfoys with him. But who would that be? He changed the topic. "I also wanted to know what you could tell me about Professor Snape. I've been told that you know about his recruitment to the Death Eaters. I'd also like to know exactly how you won over so many to your side."

Lucius didn't acknowledge him and instead got up, went to a glass cabinet and poured himself… "Old Ogden's Firewhiskey. Would you like some?"

"No, thank you."

Lucius sipped from the tumbler in his hand and came back to the couch with the bottle in tow. Once he settled down, he began speaking. "I knew Severus was the one who alerted the Order when we cornered you in the Department of Mysteries. It was rather obvious actually. Those who worked at the Ministry came as themselves and those who didn't were polyjuiced. We came and entered the Department of Mysteries at different times and waited to ambush you. No one at the ministry knew when and where we entered from. The time the Order took to arrive, it could only have been possible for them to arrive right into the Department of Mysteries that fast if they knew where you were heading when you left the school. I had Umbridge under my thumb, McGonagall had ended up in St. Mungo's, that half-giant was in hiding as was Dumbledore. Severus was the only one who could have alerted the Order. I knew which side he was on and he knew that I knew."

Harry swallowed a few times. "I don't believe you. If you knew he was a traitor to your cause, all you had to do was tell Tom and your family's status would be restored, and your side would have won. You're just spinning a story no one can verify to get out of prison!"

Malfoy Sr. shook his head. "No. I am not lying. I will repeat the same under _Veritaserum_ and you can even check my memories. I never told anyone because if _He _found out, Severus would be tortured to death. Before my arrest, I kept him shielded from the others- Ministry and Death Eaters alike. Fudge wanted his head on a spike after he showed him his Dark Mark. I spent weeks singing his praises like a parrot to Umbridge to make sure she didn't feed him to the dementers. He was a good and old friend of mine. I could not hand him over to be killed. Not that it mattered in the end." He added the last part as a derisive mutter to himself and poured out another three fingers.

Harry rubbed his hand up and down his thighs before finally resting his palms on his knees and leaning forward. "Your friend? You knew he was responsible for your families problems, why didn't you just hand him over? Save your neck as you always do!"

"Is that how you see us? Ever ready to throw someone over a cliff to save ourselves? There is a thing known as loyalty, Potter. A Slytherin stands by his own. Severus didn't betray my family. He took an unbreakable vow to keep my son safe, he stopped Greyback from having his way with my wife. He deflected most of the Dark Lord's ire onto himself and away from them. As for the victory of the cause, what cause are you talking about? That monstrosity which came back that night in Little Hannington was not the revolutionary leader my father introduced me to. Killing babies because of some drunk and half-mad charlatan's prophecy was not something I signed up for. I would have withdrawn my support if I could. But some vows, only end with death. He would have killed my family in front of my eyes and then me as well."

That part Harry knew was true. Deserting Voldemort meant being hunted like a pig. The rest though…

"The diary. Why'd you give that to Ginny?" It made no sense. Why would this pureblood supremist whose son threw around the word mudblood as if it were candy be against Voldemort?

"I needed to get rid of it. I had tried throwing it away and burning it multiple times, but it always showed up on my desk undamaged. I could not hand it over to the Ministry myself. So, I put it in her cauldron thinking that once she found out there was something wrong with it, she would hand it over to Arthur Weasley and from him, it would end up with the Ministry. If in the process, his reputation was damaged for possessing a dark artifact, then all the better. But of course, you Gryffindor lions have this need to handle everything on your own, it would be matter of great shame if you ever needed an experienced adults help."

"I don't believe you."

"Then don't. I'll be under Veritaserum when my trial comes."

Harry and Malfoy stared at each other. Nothing in Harry wanted to trust him, but what he said was entirely plausible.

"How did a poor half-blood from a mill town become friends with a pureblood like you?"

Lucius hesitated for a moment, "I needed to repay a debt. You see, his mother, Eileen Prince, used to work as a healer independent of St. Mungo's before she went and married that muggle. When I was four years old, my mother contracted a certain illness. It could be cured, but the potions needed were not made by brewers, because they contained some illegal ingredients. Unicorn blood from a new born colt, the crushed talon of a thunderbird, those kinds of things. Brewed incorrectly, it could be a poison that killed the drinker, assuming it didn't explode and kill the brewer first. Eileen Prince was the only one willing to try her hand at it. Obviously, my mother lived. About ten years later, we received a letter from her requesting that I keep an eye on her son when he started Hogwarts. I knew he was named Severus Snape, so when a scrawny boy with the black eyes common among the Princes with that name was sorted, I welcomed him to the house. I was a fifth-year prefect, so I was able to justify by looking out for him for the most part."

"For the most part?"

Malfoy smirked, probably at an old memory. "That runt… Severus that is, found out that I looked out for him only because of a debt. Came up to me, that four and half foot urchin, said he considered the debt repaid, and wanted nothing to do with me. He didn't have two galleons to rub together but kept all the pride of a king. He was cunning and knew more about magic than all the purebloods of his dorm. We became friends after that." Lucius looked towards the fireplace. "When his parents died, right after his OWLs, I convinced my father to take him in instead of the Volant family. My great-grandmother from my father's side was a Prince, Severus and I were second cousins once removed. Who do you think taught him how to walk and talk properly? He had this awful northern accent, which made no sense half the time. That and his explosive magic were his two major flaws which I helped fix."

"And that's how he was recruited into the Death Eaters. He joined the family business to repay your kindness." Harry shot at him.

"Actually, he joined because of your family's business." Lucius Malfoy was staring at him coldly, with a thinly veiled look of contempt, as if Harry himself had pushed him into the fold.

"Come again?"

Lucius shifted and poured himself another glass of Firewhiskey. "Do you know who Damocles Belby is?"

Harry had heard that name somewhere. He couldn't place it though. "I've heard of him." _Just don't ask me where or when or for what._

"He is the inventor of the Wolfsbane potion. Severus had rightly earned an apprenticeship under him by end of his sixth year. But your father, James Potter ruined it. Two months before the NEWTs, Belby revoked the apprenticeship. Severus didn't even know why until Sirius Black snatched the rejection letter from him in the Great hall, read it aloud to insult him and then bragged that it was a good thing that Fleamont Potter had advised his friend to not take a dark wizard as an apprentice. Word about it had spread throughout the Guild, no potioneer was willing to give him an apprenticeship, and without one, he had no future. Dumbledore offered to explain the situation to Belby and write a personal recommendation for him, but Severus wanted nothing to do with any of them. After his NEWTs, he took the mark and began his apprenticeship under an apothecary of the Dark Lord."

"My father wouldn't have done that. He wouldn't ruin someone's career like that. You're lying." Even as Harry said that, he couldn't help but think, if this careless act the reason Snape hated Sirius and his father.

"Ask McGonagall if you don't believe me. She's the one who stopped Severus from killing those two right then and there. I don't suppose she ever told you how many times they went at each other's throats. Some people seem to have an aversion to speaking ill of the dead."

Harry sat at the edge of his seat. "So, you're saying that had my father and godfather not done that, Snape wouldn't have been a Death Eater?"

"I cannot answer that. All I know is that Severus agreed and supported our cause, but he wasn't interested in joining. He wanted to be recognized as a respected academic and wizard, but didn't have any interest in actually fighting for it. Whenever my father bought up the matter of taking the mark and serving for the good of the wizarding world, he and I both would politely nod our heads and agree with whatever was being said. I finally took the mark because Cygnus Black wouldn't let me marry Narcissa if I didn't, and Severus took it because… well, I suppose it seemed like the best option to him at that time. He decided that staying neutral wasn't getting him anywhere, so he picked his side."

Harry nodded and sat back to think. He thought about the memory he had seen in the pensieve of Snape apologizing to his mum. Lily had accused him wanting to joining the Death Eaters, and Snape hadn't replied. He hadn't denied it, but neither did he accept the accusation. Maybe, he really was planning on staying neutral, but then decided he wanted revenge? "You said something about Cygnus Black… what do you mean by it?"

"Exactly what I said. Cygnus and Orion Black supported the Dark Lord. As did my father. He wanted me to take the mark as well, but I kept dallying. Afterall, Malfoys are not meant bend the knee for anyone. I had no intention of being at someone's every beck and call. Outside financial and political support was enough. But then Cygnus Black, the bloody bastard, said he'd marry Narcissa off to someone else if I didn't be a man and take the mark. After my father died thanks to Dragon Pox, the same outbreak that killed your grandparents, I was 'promoted' into the inner circle."

"You knew my grandparents?"

"I knew of them. The Potters were hardly worth noticing even though one of they were related to the Blacks by marriage."

"They… what?"

"Go check your family's tree. Or have Granger do it for you."

Harry shot back with as much pride and dignity he could muster. "Don't worry. I will. And I'm also going to cross-check every story you're spinning here." _Once I figure out where to find this information. _

Malfoy Sr. simply raised his glass in a mock toast. He had drunk almost half the bottle by now.

"What do you know about the Recruitment tactics of the Death Eaters? How did they manage to get such a wide following?"

"I know everything there is to know about it. My father was among the first recruits."

"Then explain to me how a madman created a civil war. I know it goes back to Grindelwald. Tell me how it happened."

By now the Sr. Malfoy was leaning back into his seat. He sighed. "It's a long story, and you are not going to like it."

"I didn't like having Riddle after me either. But here we are."

"Here we are, indeed." He emptied his drink, poured himself another and downed it as well. "Now, Grindelwald's speeches at his rallies were designed to remind people of their magical heritage. His favorite line was, and I quote, 'Magic blooms in rare souls…... forced to sulk in the shadows.' Riddle used these words to his advantage by reminding the Slytherins, his housemates, of their heritage and how they should be proud. Many purebloods agreed with him. Eventually he gained a minor amount of support from the other houses as well. When he came back from wherever he had disappeared off to after graduation, he started calling casual meetings at the Three Broomsticks initially, then the Hogs Head Inn, even the Leaky cauldron. From what I heard, there used to be gatherings where people would just talk about what they didn't like in our society and what could be done to change them. The usual 'grab a drink and complain about the system'. Nothing worth worrying about according to the Ministry. Slowly but steadily, he started gathering people who were truly passionate about those causes. Most of them were either his friends and followers from his school days and their sympathetic acquaintances. They picked up the nickname Riddle had coined during his school days- The Knights of Walpurgis. Many of those people became the first Death Eaters. The Knights were self-appointed defenders of our heritage and legacy as magical beings. Eventually their movement, initially a kind of social activism, expanded their ambit to include other causes. I will explain more about those segments in a moment.

The activism started with rallies and marches at public places like Diagon Alley. They were peaceful. Along with them came published articles and programs on the Wizarding Wireless Network. There were speeches from prominent and passionate figures. But the ministry wouldn't listen. The politicians made promises but nothing happened. People were already angry, and some of the demonstrations started including displays of magic that could be noticed by muggles. The Ministry put a ban on such demonstrations and the Daily Prophet stopped publishing articles that supported the causes. Soon violence started, and then like a small spark to a dry haystack, it spread. I was in Hogwarts when the first reports of violence came in. People started to distance themselves from it. Then Circe's Creek was destroyed and war was declared by the Death Eaters on the Ministry and those who opposed them. Anyone who thought of leaving was punished by death. By the time I graduated, many of my classmates' parents had taken the mark, and were encouraging their kids to do the same, saying that some causes were worth dying for. One generation started the war, the second fought it, twice in some cases, and yours is the third. Let's hope you idiots don't start another."

"We won't. I'll make sure of it. Why do you think I want to know what happened? I'm not repeating your mistakes nor am I going to let anyone else throw away what we fought for."

"The Order fought to stop us. It was formed to counteract the violence that was consuming our world. It had no cause, unlike us. Each and every person who joined the Dark Lord, wanted something. Something the Ministry couldn't provide, something they believed in. Not everyone was a fanatic like the Lestranges or half-wits like the Carrows. It just seemed that way because his inner circle comprised of those fools."

"Riddle used those hopes and desires to his own benefit. What did any of you get out of it?"

"Why do you think I abandoned him the first chance I got? It was more than just a desire to save my neck. My life was going well until he came back and ruined everything."

They stared at each in silence, trying to get their breathing under control, pretending that this wasn't a difficult topic for them, that they were unaffected by the horrors of what they had done and what was done to them.

Once he felt he wasn't going to crawl out of his skin, Harry prompted Lucius to continue. "You were going to elaborate on the different segments."

The man poured himself another drink, causing a bit of worry in Harry. Wandless or not, he did not want to get stuck in a fight with a drunk war criminal. After downing it in one gulp, Malfoy Sr. began speaking in a dispassionate voice.

"There was a group of Magizoologists inspired and supported by Newt Scamander who wanted to change the classification of Beasts. For example, Centaurs, though independent and sentient are classified as Beasts. The knights recruited them by telling them of the History between Hogwarts and the Centaur Herd of the Forbidden Forrest and arguing how more numbers would make it easier for them to push for the changes in laws. I believe that Newt Scamander attempted to steer the group away from the Knights and when they did not listen, he pulled away his support. That act, instead of making them withdraw, just pushed them deeper into Knights waiting arms."

"That's how he recruited the Hufflepuffs." He remarked. Lucius Malfoy just nodded, then continued.

"Shortly after that, the Ministry's Department of Mysteries, the division dedicated to the Mystery of Magic, presumably due to the pressure of then Minister, changed the categories of Dark Magic Classification. You see, during the Grindelwald War, various forms of ancient and obscure magics were used. Then was even an Obscurial- beings created due to the corruption of a Witch's or Wizard's Magic- fighting alongside him. This blanket ban, led to the Department of Magical Misuse and the Department of Magical Education to revamp the existing laws and school syllabus. For example, they used to teach magical weaponry and advanced alchemy, but stopped after that. These changes caused uproar in the Academic Community. The Ministry was flooded with Howlers from angry researchers and such who had their entire lives work invalidated and any scope of future progress taken away from them. They were joined by their students and Apprentices as well in their protests. They didn't appreciate the idea of the Ministry deciding what they could or couldn't study. A few Hogwarts Professors sympathized with them as well, I think Flitwick among them. I'm sure you can imagine how the Knights recruited them?"

"Yeah. He gave the Ravenclaws the promise of Forbidden Knowledge."

"Correct. Do keep in mind though that it wasn't just Ravenclaws, there were members of all houses in each segment he recruited, it is just that one house tended to dominate a particular sector."

"What about the Gryffindors?"

Malfoy barked out a small laugh. "That-" he said with great emphasis, "-was possibly the easiest. See, that one is on the International Confederation of Wizards. Post-Grindelwald, they imposed a strict code of conduct for Witches and Wizards all over the world. Magical families were forbidden from living among muggles unless they had at least one muggle member or muggle heritage. This was done to minimize the risk of accidental exposure, but many people did not appreciate being told where to live and what to wear. It angered them, and rightly so. The Ministry was becoming too over-bearing. Still is in my opinion."

"You're a war criminal. We could always send you off to Azkaban if the Manor is too cozy for you." Malfoy raised his palms in a gesture of surrender, but his sincerity was betrayed by the exaggerated roll his eyes gave.

Harry took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. He ran a hand through his hair and straitened up. He chewed on the inside of his mouth for a while. "If all the houses were involved with them, how come only the Slytherins are hated?"

"We dominated the leadership. Most Slytherins with their cunning and determination can be effective leaders. That, and they were the most vocal. Old pureblood families who held a lot of weight and respect in society spoke out in support on honoring our magical heritage. Our families funded the campaigns. The segments for the rights of beasts was more passive, and the academics were unfocused and not entirely united. As I told you, Slytherins have a tendency to stand by their own, if not personally then publicly."

"What magical heritage are you talking about anyway? Just because your grandparents and great grandparents were magical as well doesn't mean they're any better!" _Arrogant pureblood idiot, _Harry thought.

"Do you know why Hogwarts is a castle? Why it has…well, had hundreds of suits of armors that were animated and ready to protect the school with one spell? Why it's located deep in the middle of a mountain valley and has a lake on one end and a forest on the other?"

"Because Rowena Ravenclaw saw the location in a dream."

Malfoy blinked in disbelief at him.

Harry shrugged, "It was written on her chocolate frog card. I…uh… I never actually read Hogwarts: A History."

"Don't bother. It's abridged for mudblood children. I have copies of the original history of Hogwarts written by the founders themselves when they first made established the school. Now to let you know the bitter truth. During the time of the founders, the first witch hunts had begun. One of them was Godric's own village, where he was the sole survivor. It's written that he killed the group of muggles that attacked the village in a fit of accidental magic and then acquired a sword from the goblins so that he could fight fairly with muggles he encountered. Yes, Potter," he said with a vicious smile, "does it surprise you to know that saintly Gryffindor was the first one to kill muggles? Ever wondered why the village is called 'Godric's Hollow'?"

_Why indeed? Does anyone else know all about this? Did Binns? _"Go on. I'm listening. Just don't expect me to blindly believe everything you're saying."

"Ah, you do have some sense. Back to the tale, after obtaining his sword, he began a journey across the land. On the way he encountered Rowena Ravenclaw, who was escaping her despicable husband. Together they met a merchant's party whose eldest son, a budding scholar, saved them by talking down a 10 feet cobra who wanted to have them for dinner. The merchant's son, Salazar Slytherin, joined them. Then the three encountered a wizard escaping from muggles. He died from his wounds, but asked them to take care of his daughter, a young healer named Helga Hufflepuff. And thus, came together the founders four.

Soon, it became apparent to them that their magical knowledge would be lost to time and all the magical community extinguished. They decided to find a hidden location to build a fortress that would house all magical families. But when they went to call all the families, almost all parents decided to send only their children to the care of the founders trusting them to protect and teach the children in magical arts. And thus, Hogwarts became a school where the children resided safely and the adults took care of matters outside, which ranged from fighting battles with muggles in order to protect their villages to sending the wizarding community to out of the way places to settle. Do note that during those years, everyone was a pureblood. Rowena recorded in her journals that more than half the wizarding community perished. It was during this time that people discovered that at random, magical children were being born to muggle parents. It was suggested that these muggleborn witches and wizards were nature's way of replenishing the magical population. Magic is raw power that resides everywhere, magic itself never dies. It dissipates and is absorbed by the surroundings. In this case, it seemed that magic was finding its way to the unborn children and making their blood magical despite having no such ancestry.

This was taught in Hogwarts during my grandfather's time in an elective class known as 'Mysteries of Magic' but by the time he graduated, it had been banned by the Ministry. Oh, don't look so defiant, I have written proof of all this theory, in case you want to check. It says that a thousand years ago when so many witches and wizards died, their magic coalesced and took residence in the bodies of the unborn children of muggles. They inherited magic from those their parents had killed. Tell that mudblood Granger to look up her family's history and compare the names with the trees of the known wizarding families. I'm willing to bet my life that somewhere in her line was either a witch or wizard or at the very least a squib. The same was most certainly true for your mother. She could not have had magic otherwise."

Lucius got up and started pacing, growing more and more agitated with each word.

"The purebloods didn't blame them though. It wasn't their fault. Those who had hidden estates and villages fortified with charms and wards, started to find and welcome these children into their homes. And that was their biggest error, because that's when the problem started. Many of them did not want to be magical and either choose to merge their muggle religious traditions with magical ones or outright betray the wizards who were trying to protect them to the muggles!

Purebloods are taught their family's history. We have preserved whatever records we could. We know just how many villages and how many members of our families died trying to protect those ungrateful mudbloods! My own family had given protection to nearly three dozen muggleborn magical children in our own village. The hill you see towards the north, just behind it was the village. now it's our family graveyard. They betrayed us, they contacted the muggles that gave birth to them and led them. My ancestor, Alfred Malfoy, the one who personally welcomed them into his village, and two of his sons were burnt alive at the stake alongside four hundred magical people. That number included elderly men, women and children too young to go to Hogwarts. Among them was Salazar's only son, Serein who had come at his father's behest to help put up wards. The flame freezing charm was invented about a hundred years after that massacre."

He whipped around and looked straight at Harry. His eyes held no trace of the madness that defined zealots like Bellatrix. "This is why they cannot be trusted Potter. Muggles don't understand magic, they fear it. They pass on that fear to their children. Those children don't appreciate the rich history and subsequent trials our world faced because doing that would mean admitting that it was their non-magical ancestors who forced us into hiding. Haven't _you_ ever faced the fear of magic from that muggle family which raised you?"

Harry kept quiet. He made and took copies of the relevant records to read with Hermione and to cross check with the Ministry archives and then left without another word all the while thinking of his cupboard underneath the stairs.


End file.
